Child of the Virus
by mrcloak
Summary: Alex Mercer died 90 years after the second outbreak, of his own choice- self-imposed starvation. Now, one of his created children (Not necessarily good OC), finds himself living through the first contact war, and many other interesting events. May include romances, if I feel like it, and there will be violence. Updated to M Due to Batarian Bisection. Keywords: Von Neumann, John, AU
1. Chapter 0- It all starts with an ending

**Ch 0: It starts with an ending...**

* * *

It was a dark and stormy night.

A nurse stood at the window, and, closing the blinds, walked over to the figure lying on the hospital bed. An empty warehouse was not ideal for a patient in any hospital, but the two people in that room were not normal in the slightest.

Alex Mercer, the monster of Manhattan, was dying. After watching a duplicate of himself lay waste to the city, he had infected James Heller with a variant of his own virus, setting the scene for the solider to destroy 'him'. The plan had worked out well, and Heller had beaten back the infection in Manhattan... But it had changed.

Mercer gave a few others the same sorts of abilities, and set them loose on the rest of the world, his agents devouring the infection wherever it had popped up, and over time, BlackLight, and similar organizations had disappeared.

Heller, on the other hand, realizing that Mercer was still alive, began tracking down and killing his agents, and gained more power in the process. Eventually he found Alex's sister, Dana, and used her to blackmail Mercer into a one-on-one fight, in the city where the two of them would be at the greatest weakness.

Seattle, WA, the city of rain.

John, one of the survivors of Heller's hunt, watched Heller, holding Dana, now old, and her husband, by their necks, over the edge of the space needle, while Alex Mercer pleaded with Heller to let them go.

John, Mirriam, and Wesley, the three remaining 'children' of Mercer, had chosen that moment to act, and in a few moments of action, Wesley was grappling with Heller, and the other two had grabbed Dana and her husband.

Heller, yelling about how evil they all were, shot spiked out of himself in every direction, impaling Wesley, and, as Dana and her husband watched, liquified and absorbed Wesley.

Mercer, shouted at his 'children' to run, attacked Heller, snarling like a rabid animal, claws, spikes, and tendrils forming and attacking as fast as the eye could see.  
John, carrying Dana, nodded to their creator/mentor, and jumped away, bringing them down to ground level in a moment, and hailing a taxi for the elderly couple.

The fight took less than a minute, and Alex, victorious, landed behind them as the taxi pulled up.

Dana and her husband both embraced Alex, before he began to cry. John and Mirriam watched as they said their goodbyes, and Alex walked over to the children of his creation.

"I wish to die."

Mirriam, the older of the two, was the first to speak up. "How?"

Mercer looked at the two who had been with him for more then 50 years, and pushed back his hood. "I will not eat again, and when I die, one of you will consume me."

That had been nearly 40 years ago. Mirriam, being infatuated with her creator since she had been gifted with the mercer virus, had stayed by his side for 39 of those years, dying before her creator, and had been his lover for the time they had shared.

John mentally 'pulled' his nurse disguise off, and feeling relief as the female shape shifted back into his more familiar male shape. He pulled up a stool, and sat by the bedside of his creator, wearing the same design of jacket and hood that Mercer had worn back when the two had met, all those years ago.

Mercer suddenly let out a breath, and sat up."... Ah. Sorry John. It's getting harder and harder to stay awake now. Are you sure you want to stay?" He asked, sounding healthy as ever. Only other infected could tell if one of their ranks was dying, and John knew without the shadow of a doubt that his creator, and one of his best friends, was dying. "I remember how badly Dana's death hit you... And how much you cried at Mirriam's."

"It's alright Alex. I am just sad that I am the last one left." John tried to keep the tears out of his voice, and was failing miserably. "I will stay here until the end. I owe you that much."

Alex smiled, and pushed his hood back again. "Can't this thing stay down for one nap? I hate having it reform around my head every time I sleep." He was jovial, joking almost, but John heard the exhaustion in his voice.

Alex had not changed since the events of the Prototype Redlight, as historians had come to call the event, and only recently had begun to show signs of aging, due to his lack of energy from feeding, the virus was dying at an alarming rate.

John sniffed. "It won't be trouble long, Alex. Remember how quick it was for Mirriam?"

Alex rolled his eyes, and his hood began to unravel. "How can I forget."

John looked down at Mercer's hands, noting how the tips of his fingers were beginning to lose color, as the virus absorbed everything it could to power itself, and ran out of fuel.

Alex looked at John, and put the discoloring hand on his friend's shoulder. "It will be alright. I chose my true children well after Heller, and I leave the decision of what you do to you." He grinned, his arm having lost all color, becoming a sterile white. "You remember where I want my grave?"

"Of course. " John was no longer crying, but he still felt sorrow that Alex had to leave. "Are you sure you need to go? We may have FTL in a few short years, if the archeologists on Mars understand the ruins properly, and then there will be a galaxy to see!"

Alex placed his arm on the sheets, stiffly, as the rapid death continued up his arm. "I chose this, John. You should go see that new galaxy, maybe even find others to carry on the virus... As long as you don't loose another Manhattan on the world, I will always be proud of you."

The discoloration was hitting his main jacket and shirt now, and his hands had stopped moving altogether. "Promise me this, John," Alex sounded tired." That you will keep the memories alive, and prevent those horrible events from happening again. Prevent humanity from going extinct."

John raised an eyebrow. "Should I do the same for all the alien species we come across?" His tone of voice was humorous, but with the ruins on Mars, well, it was not a sure thing anymore.

Alex closed his eyes. The discoloration marking the true death of the virus continued up his torso, and was at his shoulders. His voice had begun to suffer, with his lungs beginning to seize up (he may not have needed to breathe, but he needed them to talk). "Yes. Protect the intelligent species from extinction- god knows the humans needed me to interfere." His head began to discolor, black hair turning white, skin turning colorless, and he smiled.

"Goodbye, John. I am at peace."

With the last word, he stopped moving, becoming a stark statue of himself, sitting on the hospital bed.

John began to cry, and then stopped himself. That is not the way Alex. Mercer asked to be mourned, and that is not how he would mourn his friend, creator, and mentor. He felt a tendril, almost like an afterthought, snake from his shoulder to the white corpse, and spread over the surface, absorbing- no, consuming it, and after a moment, the bed was empty.

John felt the new knowledge his mentor had left him, imbedded in the pattern of microscopic, still-living nodules in the corpse. Memories, fond ones, of Dana, and dozens of shapes were remembered, but John only felt sorrow. He walked out of the building, and, still crying, began to run.

After a couple hours of running, at over 100km/hr, he had covered the majority of the United States, and came up on Manhattan island, leaping over the signs warning people of radioactive contamination, he leapt onto the only bridge intact enough to allow transportation to and from the island.

Water and beings like himself, anyone infected with the Mercer virus, did not really mix.

He ran through the destroyed city, grabbing cars, and other large pieces of metal, before coming upon a single, almost untouched hill, in the middle of the city. That was where Alex Mercer, John, and Mirriam had buried Dana and her husband, near the memorial that had been erected to the near-million dead that two zombie outbreaks had caused. After Mirriam's death, Alex and John had planted a piece of steel, about the same size as a small gravestone, taken from part of the battleship that had been blasted ashore by the nuke that had signified the end of the first outbreak, and had etched her face, and name into it.

John took the pieces he had collected on his run through the city, and began sorting them, and eventually, found a piece, similar in size to a gravestone, and sat down, holding it while his hands morphed into dark, organic metal claws.

He waited a moment, then began to carve an image of Alex's face into the steel with a single finger. After he was done, John nodded, and began to write beneath the etching.

Monster, brother, friend, creator, and teacher.  
He will be remembered until the end of time.  
Dixit ad mortem, sive mortalities est.

He placed the piece down, next to Mirriam's, and then stood up. After throwing the remaining scrap metal a good thousand yards, he stood over their graves, and, letting his arms return to a human form, cried for Mercer and his family.

End of chapter 0.


	2. Chapter 1- Invasion

**Ch 1: Invaded**

* * *

Alex Mercer died in 2098.

After the death of his creator/mentor/friend, John acquired work at the protean Research base (after devouring a few physicists of course), and began researching the properties of element zero.

After a decade or so, the first FTL engine was born. Utilizing a mass-effect core, and a mass-effect altered ion engine, the modified shuttle was able to hit 1.1x lightspeed by the year 2132. Within less than a decade, slow chemical-drive spacecraft were replaced and retrofitted for the new mass-effect cores, and colonization began.

Luna was one of the first, colonized in 2138, with mass-effect based manipulators able to manipulate matter in sufficient quantities to construct massive refineries within less than a year, enabling domed cities to be built with astonishing rapidity. People soon learned that the moon had a decent supply of eezo, and they began mining it, for the growing boom of starships.

In 2140, Venusian colonies were built, harvesting gas for the newer ion-engines that propelled their ships through the void.  
In 2149, the Charon relay was extracted from the ice, and was activated.

Through all this, John continued to acquire doctorates, in the fields of mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineering, and in several fields of high-energy physics. He began to feel disquieted by how easy everything seemed, and how quickly the principles of mass-effect technology had been picked up.

When there was a report of other habitable like-earth planets beyond the relay, John was one of the many colonists to travel out to a new world, designated Shanxi.  
After five years of teaching mass-effect principles to engineering students, the first-contact war begins (2157).

* * *

John had been working on this design for some time now- an alcubierre drive- FTL- that would require minimal eezo, and allow humanity to bypass any potential reliance on the relays. His miniature prototype was nearly done, and, as he picked up the calipers to check measurements on the magnetic bottle distortion coil, a small girl's voice spoke up right behind him, as well as a tug on his (mostly) white lab coat.

"Watcha doing?"

"Working." His voice was terse, but that was mostly because he wanted to form some better tools than he had available. "Want to see?"

He slid his chair over and the girl pushed a stool up to the workbench, sunlight streamed into the room rough the roof, and illuminated the workbench where his new drive was taking shape.

John helped her onto her stool, before moving the more dangerous tool away. She was the daughter of one of his neighbors, native-born to Shanxi, dressed in a small pink dress, with a little blue bow in her raven hair.

"Ooh! What's that do?" She pointed at the bulbous sphere on one end of the device.

"That's the power-plant. It takes helium-3 and uses fusion to turn it into power." He pointed at another part of it. "And here is where that power gets used to power the faster-than-light drive."

"Wow!" John thought her eyes could not get any bigger. "But don't we have the pass-expect enginene?"

He chuckled. "Yes, we have the mass-effect engines. But we need the relays for those to go anywhere far, and I wanted to make a different sort of engine."

She clapped, smiling in the harmless way that only children can. "Does it work yet? Can I see it work?"

John grinned. "It should work. Come on- let's go outside."

He grabbed a few things off the table: alcubierre drive, parachute, rc module, test probes, and then walked out of the workshop, followed closely by the little girl.

Behind John's workshop, the grasslands began. Shanxi had been developing well since it's discovery, but humans could only expand so fast.

John carefully set the drive down, and began making slight adjustments.

The girl walked up. "Can I help?"

John didn't look up. "Yes. Miri, could you grab the parachute? It has the orange stripes."

The three-year-old picked up the conic object, and handed it to John.

He smiled. "Thanks little one."

"So..." She persed her lips, "what is it going to do?"

John fiddled with the remote control mechanism, and a small hum was heard coming from the device. "We might want to step back..."

He picked her up, and jogged back to a nearby building. "Little one, this may be very, very, VERY loud, so keep your hands over your ears, ok?"

Miri nodded, and covered her ears, staring at the small device in the field.

"Right... Interlocks disengaged, mass effect core activated, and magnetic bottle activated. Increasing constants in situ..."

The device began hovering, as the mass-effect field reduced the effective mass of the device to a minuscule fraction of what it had been. It oriented, turning the pointed parachute to the sky, with it's three long beams with their minuscule engraving rippling like some otherworldly jellyfish.

There was a pulse of light, and suddenly there was a small, sliver marble hovering at the bottom of the device.

There was a slight whine of servomotors, and the three arms began opening away from each other, the silver sphere deforming into a disk.

John looked down at the control panel. Everything looked good- the computer on the device was smart enough to activate the drive, and pulse it out some 20 light-years or so- if his math was right- deploy the small probes to gain an image of the surrounding starscape, then return back into orbit where he could pick it up later.

Then warning lights began flashing on the touch-screen remote control.

"Nononononon..." He started in-putting shutdown commands, trying to prevent the device from exploding this time. "Don't do it. I am so close..."

The silver disk began rippling, and the arms began to fold up and over the probe, encasing it in the silver incongruity in space time. Suddenly, before it had been completely engulfed, there was a massive THOOM noise, and suddenly there was a clean hole, almost like a probe-sized well shaft, where the probe used to be, and a tornado-like windstorm flowed into the hole.

After a minute or so, the wind stopped, and Miri took her hands off her ears. "Was that supposed to happen?"

John glared at the control panel, noting that at lest the probe would not be coming back, potentially punching another hole through the planet. "No. Yes. Sort of- it was not supposed to go backwards, and the shield hadn't even sealed. Still, it proved the concept easily."

Miri walked over to the hole, and looked down. "How deep does it go?"

John placed the rc control pad in a pocket, and picked up a small stone. "Let's see..."

He dropped the stone into the hole. After a minute, they didn't hear anything.

"I don't know. The probe is not responding, but I think it is at the bottom of that pit." He gestured at the deep hole- walls looked compacted from some significant force. "Well... Too late now."

He turned to Miri, as she picked up a stone, and dropped it into the hole. "Shouldn't you be heading home? I know your parents will miss you."

Miri stamped. "But I want to drop some more stuff down the hole!"

John shook his head. "Fine. One rock, then you head back."

She giggled, and tossed the rock into the hole, listening to the small impact noises as it hit the walls.

Miri ran off, and John saw her mother, watching from the doorway to her little pre-fabricated house. Miri ran up, and hugged her mother. "Did you see it mom? Mr. Gardner made a hole in the ground just like that!" She clapped her hands.

Her mother laughed. "Yes I did." The two walked back into the house, and closed the door behind themselves.

John sighed. Five years. Five years he had been maintaining this disguise in public, the shape of Dr. Lenard Gardner, mass-effect field physicist, and he was getting weary of it. Feeling the hunger as he walked among the people of Shanxi, and not doing anything about it, save the occasional mugger, and that one guy who had been high as a kite and had broken into his tiny home.

He gagged as a he remembered how bad that guy had tasted. Drug addicts had never been on his menu of preferred people, but that guy had been dosed to the gills on heroin, and had been disgusting.

John looked around, and, seeing that he was not observed, began to change. Two fingers on his right hand merged into a single red-black tendril, which extended into the hole. He closed his eyes, savoring the feeling of shape-shifting again, and a small eye formed on the end of the tendril, along with a set of small insect-like limbs.

After a few minutes of lowering, the eye-tendril saw that the hole had curved, and John landed the little eye on the bottom of the curved surface.

His eye was using infected vision- low-light, heat-based vision, and he directed it to crawl along the tunnel. Several minutes passed, and then the eye found the probe.

It was distorted, almost as if it has been partially liquified, and then rippled. There was a smooth overall distortion to the original shape, and although one if the manipulation-legs was broken, the fusion core was still mostly intact.

Back on the surface, John stroked the beard of Dr. Gardner. The bubble must not have distorted evenly to cause a turning in thrust, but the rippling effect... The inside of the bubble must not have been stable before the thrust-distortion was engaged.

He shrugged, and sent a ripple of material down to the eye-tendril. Within a couple seconds, the eye had retreated into the tendril, and the tendril thickened enough to form pseudopods, like fingers, which he directed to grasp the small test engine.

A few minutes of pulling brought the probe up to the surface, and he re-absorbed the tendril, feeling his mass squirm and settle as it had to compress all that material back into the arm of the dark-haired Asian doctor's shape.

He hefted the probe, and walked back into his workshop- the probe was unceremoniously dropped onto a workbench, and he closed the door to the cluttered building.

John sighed, took off his lab coat (he had not morphed that- he liked the lab coat too much) and relaxed, letting his form revert to his original shape. Male,~20 years old, red hair, and wearing a black hoodie and sweatpants- what he looked like before he became Evolved. Tendrils- small ones, the thickness of his fingers- extended from his flesh, and began to put the components of his work away.

He laughed- he must have looked like a lovecraftian nightmare doing some spring cleaning, but it was less boring than doing such work with only two limbs. Red-black tendrils placed tools on their hooks, picked up extra screw and other parts and placed them into the proper boxes. Other tendrils pulled elastic bands around the blueprints he had for the device, and others began to pull out a folder from a nearby file cabinet. The folder contained his notes on the alcubierre principle, and how it could be developed without eezo.

After a moment's thought, John put the folder away. That's a job for tomorrow, he thought. He retracted the tentacles, and walked into the home-y part of his housing. It looked like all the other pre-fabricated houses, but he had put in blinds on the first day of his arrival, since shape-shifting where people could see was usually a way to cause a panic. He flicked a thin tendril over to the tv controls, and activated the projector.

The device whirred to life, and John grabbed a glass of water while the reporter talked.

"- reports have been coming in that the majority of the relay activation team has been killed by aliens." The announcer's voice seemed calm, but John wasn't really paying attention to her words. She just looked so delicious, and after not eating anything live since that burglar a few weeks ago, He was hungry. Wait- aliens?

"The Frigate Syracuse has docked within the station, and it seems to be the only one of the relay activation scout fleet to survive the initial encounter. As you can see," the camera panned over the frigate- two of the three engines (primary maneuvering engines) were damaged, and there were alarmingly-large holes in the hull. "Whether these rumors are true-"

The camera pitched wildly, and another window came into view- larger ships, built like blocks with large angular wings providing support to glowing engines, decelerating close to the station.

There was an audible 'thud', and a tiny speck of white light- the drive of a long-range message drone- was visible momentarily, flying straight at the relay.  
The alien ship fired- and the lights went out.

John remembered that there was a couple-second delay on the feed, and, pausing only to morph back into the skin of Dr. Gardner, ran outside.

There was a supersonic boom, as a single-stage-to-orbit fighter flew lower over the colony, before accelerating straight up- riding on a fusion-assisted turbo-scramjet. As he looked around, several other fighters were visible, their engines like ascending sparks, visible from miles away.

Miri's family ran outside, as did everyone else nearby. Her brother -he must be 10 by now- spoke up. "Are we in danger, mom?"

His mom, holding Miri, pulled him to her. "We will be fine." But John could hear the fear in their voice. "We will be fine- the navy will protect us."

* * *

In orbit, the Turian fleet had destroyed the Syracuse, and had been effortlessly shooting the fighters down.  
The ships turned on the planet, locating military installations, and began firing mass-accelerator cannons towards the surface.

* * *

Every city on the planet had been built near a major military installation, or an eezo deposit. The installation near John's home had a total of 20 men. All friends if his- maintaining the mass-effect cores that the ships utilized for their surface-to-orbit capability was essential, and difficult. John was acting as their teacher, primarily keeping the group appraised of more recent updates in that rapidly-expanding field of physics. However, the aliens had decided that even a small fighter installation like that would be a potential threat.

All of this flashed through John's mind as an arc of white light fell from the sky, and hit the base, lighting up the sky like a nuke.

Then the shockwave hit.

Buildings crumpled, and people were blasted aside. John saw the world tumble as he felt himself get picked up like a toy, and thrown into a piece of building that had been deformed in just the right (or wrong- depends on your point of view) way, to cut through him like a butchers knife.

Both sides of his head said "Fuck..."

Being bisected is not fun for anyone.

After extracting himself off the edge (much swearing was had doing that), he began looking for survivors among the rubble.

Flicking on the infected vision as easy as breathing, he started looking around, finding only the cooling bodies of the other colonists. Every human he came across was dead- they were a kilometer from the base and the over-pressure of the blast had still killed them.

There was a sonic boom, and John switched off his infected vision in time to see small vehicles- probably landing craft- beginning a wide, curving descent towards the intact part of the colony.

They meant to invade. That may make things complicated...

He took off running, dropping his shape as Dr. Gardner for a smaller, female form, and was soon in the colony proper.

* * *

Private Aktis Tulian was eager on his first combat drop. He had finished training just in time for this mission- pacifying a relay-activating species-, and was rather excited. Also nervous. And apprehensive. But mostly excited. He took a breath to calm himself.

One of the other troops placed a talloned hand on his shoulder. "You good, shiny?"

"I'm good." Aktis's mandibles twitched. "Just ready to go is all."

"Well get ready!" The pilot shouted from the front. "Landing in 5."

The troop leader stepped up. "RIGHT SHINYS- WE HAVE A LANDING ZONE TO SECURE! FIND ALL SURVIVORS, AND BRING THEM BACK TO THE LANDING ZONE! AM. I UNDERSTOOD?"

"YES MA'M!" The troopers yelled as one, and as soon as the door opened, they rushed out of the shuttle.

* * *

Night fell.

John hid among the larger buildings, as the aliens began collecting civilians and rounding them up. They were bipedal, with silver-grey scales, and with talons instead of fingers. Their heads were almost bird-like, and they had only two finger and a thumb.

Another important fact - every single alien he saw from his vantage point was carrying a weapon.

The invaders were disciplined, and obviously a war-faring species. Now all he needed to do is see if he could consume one...

* * *

Private Aktis was bored. The prisoners they had collected had not done anything to try to escape, (at least, he thought, not with women and children in harms way), and it had been a couple hours since they had landed.

Orders had just came down the chain of command that all the groups of humans they had collected were to be concentrated in a primary area, where one of the smaller ships could land and bring them to a temporary holding location on Paleven.

Then he saw movement in one of the alleyways.

A female, relatively young-looking, with green eyes, peaking out from behind some refuse containers. She saw him staring, and ran back around a corner in the alley.

"Hey sarge" Aktis spoke to one of the squad who came down with them. "Is that alley a dead end? I thought I saw movement."

'Sarge' checked his omni-tool. "It is. I will call a squad to check it out."

"Sir," Aktis spoke up again, mandibles twitching even faster, "My motion detector is reading only one human. I can do this!"

"Really?" Sarge looked skeptical. "Remember that volus in the bar? He blindsided you with a bottle."

"I will not be blindsided by a human." Aktis almost spit out the word.

* * *

"Go then." Sarge waved at him. "I will notify our superiors that you may have caught a straggler."

John waited for the bird-head to come down the ally. Acting the scarred female was easy- the memories of how to move, and how to speak and act were imbedded in the shape he wore. All his disguises were flawless- having more than a century to practice holding subtle differences in the shapes had been worth it for moments like this.

As the alien walked into the alley, he poked his head out from around the corner. Just long enough for the soldier to notice him, then duck back around the bend.

The alien came around the corner, weapon at the ready. As it came closer, the expression on it's face was, John guessed, one of annoyance. It spoke, multi-layering in it's voice that sounded absolutely alien.

John pretended to cower against the back wall, eyes wide, braced against the wall, whispering words of mercy and appearing to cry a little. In his experience, emotions were universally understood between races on earth- hopefully, it would bypass the language barrier.

Apparently it did- the alien stepped closer, lowering the barrel of the weapon, and reaching out with a clawed hand. John reached for the hand, then hesitated, and, as he took the alien's hand, smirked.

The alien's face shifted expression, going from open (or so it looked- horizontal-motion mandibles on a face with a vertical jaw? Really?), to surprised, as John slammed him into the wall, and shifting back into his own skin.

The alien's eyes widened as John grinned, shifting his free hand into a scalpel-like blade, and he began to babble in a voice that John remembered from the old days, of hunting and killing his targets.

-_Mercy! Have mercy! I won't tell a soul! Just let me live!_-

John stabbed the alien, feeling a blue, flickering barrier that tracked and broke like thin glass attempt to impede his strike. He struck right under the mandibles, and felt his blade cut through multiple layers of muscle and bone. He softened the hand, and extended feeder tendrils, feeling the alien twitch as he began to absorb it's body, green eyes watching black eyes, get absorbed into the black-red mass that was John.

John hiccuped, and was immediately confused. He had not ever done that since, well, since he had eaten a rabid raccoon that one week he had gone a bit nuts, over a century ago. He hiccuped again dropping the now-empty armor, and closed his eyes, feeling the new biomass in his body almost fighting his digestion...

Oh.

The alien was composed entirely of right-handed molecules! John relaxed, and felt his essence, his base self, begin to re-arrange into a new form to compensate.

He knew, like all the children of Mercer, that now he was, without his mind, nothing more than a virus. An incredibly advanced virus, but a virus nonetheless. Something that hunted, destroyed, consumed and modified everything in it's path, and without a mind to guide that power, he was no more than a natural disaster waiting to happen.

John concentrated, feeling the modifications already. Redundant DNA system, in both right and left-handed proteins to compensate for the new life-forms. He would need to have to digest faster, to detect the proteins faster, if he wanted to consume more right-handed aliens.

Then the memories hit him.

At first, they were incomprehensible. Sensations that didn't make any sense, memories that had no baseline, and word-ideas that didn't mesh with the way he thought. It took a moment or two, but he began to understand the memories.

Ships, huge numbers of them, were seen by this alien- no, is turian, John remembered, as the name of their species came to him. The language, which had been gibberish, suddenly shifted focus, like changing the focal lens on a camera, and the meanings were clear. The strength of the turian armies, the money system, the strength of their armor and shields, the proper way to hold that weapon- a Daedaloks Shotgun, double barrels with mass-effect accelerators, and oversize heatsinks to negate the requirement for thermal clips.

He felt the new form ready, waiting, in the back of his mind. He shifted into a swarm of tendrils, and inserted himself into the empty armor. Then he pulled the new shape on, feeling the plates form on his head, mandibles extend from his jaw, eyes re-form, and hands defined by their two fingers stabilize in the armor.

He stood up, feeling the body move, and felt just a bit wrong. Alien- like trying to put on a shirt that was just the wrong cut.

Now all he needed to do was get off the planet- maybe to this 'Illium'. It looked like an interesting world. Or this 'Citadel'. At least until humanity got onto the galactic stage, he should lay low.

Maybe chew on some Asari- the memories this turian had of them made the species look very enticing...

* * *

End of chapter 1.

* * *

Right- I will need to ask for some reader participation now. I have been trying to decide whether to make the next part of the story continue in ME1 or ME2.  
Cast your vote now! It will decide where the story heads from here.


	3. Chapter 2- Void

(Authors note- start)  
Hey everyone. I was looking through the mass-effect universe timeline, and I learned a few things.  
First- due to the fact that my character is limited by human constraints, I only have a couple of events that are interesting before the geth invade Eden Prime.  
Second- due to the first, I get to make some events up.

Oh, and I read all the reviews.  
To that one guy- you know who you are- who could not see why Mercer wanted to off himself... Mercer has seen some freaky ass shit. He was not psychologically ready to have immortality thrust upon him, and could not stand the thought of outliving his sister by such a great margin. In the story Prototype, he underwent massive mental trauma. Do you think suddenly have the memories of another person in your mind is something you could deal with easily? There are people who could do that, but they are few and far between. That said, he held up remarkably well. But by the end of Prototype he would have been diagnosed with PTSD. Watching his only family members grow old and die would be excruciatingly painful, and Dana's death... Let's just say it was a good thing that Mirriam was with him for nearly all of his starvation.  
If you are going to criticize the story (and by all means do- I like reading the reviews), please don't tell me to rethink my story. That is like walking up to an opera singer and punching them in the throat because you "didn't like the story of the opera" that you just listened to.  
If you don't like it, don't read it.  
That said,  
Engaging story mode.

(Authors note- end)

* * *

**Ch 2: Void  
**

* * *

Late 2162

* * *

The Asari shifted in her seat. She had dark blue skin, very subtle green facial markings, and green eyes that kept darting around the hull of the transport ship.

John really didn't feel comfortable in this form. Almost every being appeared attractive to an Asari, and, since he was currently in the body of an asari maiden, he felt excessively restless. And frustrated.

Since leaving Shanxi, John had gone to Paleven, then to Omega, where he found the morsel he was currently disguised as. After devouring her, John learned a lot about the Asari- their lifespan of a thousand years or more, their three life stages (the rambunctious maiden stage, the motherly Matron stage, and the powerful Matriarchs), and their natural ability to use element zero to power their biotics.

It was this last bit that intrigued John- and sickened him, at first. Eezo was a stabilized form of neutron-only element, with a form of molecular bonding that utilized a middle-force between gravity and electromagnetism. It was this factor that had sparked humanity's expansion, and, oddly enough, it was what gave the Asari superpowers, or, as they referred to it 'biotics'. It was also radioactive in a way (gravitational flux radiation), and he had needed to adapt to contain the unique element in his system.

John rolled his eyes as he remembered his attempts to utilize the element zero after his adaptation ran it's course. Hours of standing around, moving in a way to trigger the biotics, and getting nothing more than a slight wiggle on the pencil he had been trying to manipulate. A few days of inability later, John went back to the math. As it turned out, the distortion-field element zero emitted weakened the more mass it had to move through, and John was just too dense for him to effectively be able to manipulate anything.

On Omega, his actions, or rather the lack of actions of the woman he was impersonating, had gotten the attention of one Aria T'loak, the queen of Omega.  
The Asari he had consumed was one of her daughter's close friends.

Aria had not taken kindly to John's attempt to leave Omega, and, in the end, he had waited for a few years in that rock. He had spent the time by attacking mercenary groups, collecting their cash, and trying to find a smuggler that would get him off that asteroid.

However, it was only after a news report talking about the human-run Systems Aliance, and how they were growing in power at an impressive rate, did he intensify his hunt, finding a smuggler willing to risk the wrath of the queen of Omega.

Now, five years after he left Shanxi, he was sitting in a cargo box, his form shaped like an Asari, bound for Thessia, and sitting next to a snoring Salarian- one of three engineers who were working on this vessel.

And John was hungry again.

He reached over, and placed one hand on each of the two head-spikes the amphibious alien had. With a quick snap, he ripped the skull open, and felt his instincts attempt to to create the feeding-tendrils that -old absorb the body into his own.

John held the feeding back- one of the things he had learned was that weapons-scanners that these people used could tell when something was inorganic vs organic... And he did not want to rip the Asari jumpsuit.

Smooth blue skin became writhing tendrils as he unzipped it, and, with a slurping noise, the Salarian was absorbed, bone, organs, and flesh became him, and was pulled into his dense mass.

He zipped up the suit just as the door to the cargo hold opened. The armored figure of an eclipse mercenary stood there, weapon held in a relaxed position. "The captain wanted to let you know- we will be arriving on Thessia soon."

John smirked. "Is that really what she said?" The captain of this ship was an Asari, a high-ranking eclipse member, who routinely smuggled people between Omega, Thessia, and Illium. Since there was a standing interdiction for her vessel around Illium... The only other place the captain was willing to bring John was Thessia.

The Merc used his free hand to open part of the full-face helmet, revealing that he was a batarian (humanoid, pointed teeth, 4 eyes, and all unappetizing), and scratched his chin. "Well, her exact words were 'tell that freeloading slut to get off my ship as soon as we touch down.', but I wanted to be a bit more polite to the person who managed to charter a vessel all on her own."

"Tell her I will be off when we touch down." John sighed. All the credits he had had been spent on this trip- he was broke. Well, he thought, I can just assume another identity, and take their cash. Maybe work on the docks as a drive technician- until I build another alcubierre drive.

* * *

Within an hour, John was on the surface of Thessia... Well, technically not the surface, as the city they had landed in a fusion of gigantic arcologies, mashed into a (rather pleasing in appearance) giant city.

After looking around for a few hours, John walked into a bar. It sounds like the start of a bad joke, he thought. Mostly Asari, but a few other species were present. Two humanoid/lizard-like Drell, guarding a jellyfish-like alien called a Hanar, were observing as the jellyfish-like alien argued with a humanoid alien in a form of environmental suit- Quarians, he remembered.

John took off his backpack, grabbed a free seat nearby, and began listening. He easily adjusted his internal ears to a more sensitive layout, and soon the conversation was crystal clear.

"We need the resources!" The Quarian seemed exasperated, rubbing her neck through the suit. "If we don't get permission to enter the system, the flotilla will-"

"The Illuminated Primacy cannot afford to allow the flotilla to enter any of our colonized systems." The Hanar had a tone-less voice, probably simulated by the small device on a band around one of it's many tentacles. "Please do not try to sway this one, for as much as this one wants to offer aid, this one has been instructed by the Primacy to prevent the Flotilla from entering any of our colonized systems. We cannot change the orders. Perhaps, if you had something to offer..."

The Quarian sighed. "Can't we just have a few comets? If we don't get enough water in the next month-"

The Hanar raised a tentacle. "This one knows. Maybe if would there was something of sufficient worth that could be traded for a comet, we could deliver one to the flotilla."

"I have a list of what I am permitted to barter..." The Quarian gestured with a hand at a datapad. "You rejected all of it."

The Hanar, using two tentacles, gestured in a way approximating a shrug. "You did not list anything of value that could be traded." The jellyfish pushed itself off what could only be it's 'chair'- something that resembled a stool with a bowl on top. "Business is concluded."

The jellyfish walked out the door, and the Quarian just sat there, nursing a sealed bottle. With an obviously practiced motion, she pulled a straw from the top of the bottle, and inserted it into a small hole that opened in her mask.

"Hey there Cutie. What are you doing in this part of town?" the closeness of the voice startled John, and he had to re-adjust his internal ears so that the voice would not cause physical pain.

Another Asari sat down next to John- she was attractive, as all of this species seemed to be, a curvy form, with dark purple skin and black facial markings. This could not end well... At least I have a decent disguise, he thought. "Looking for a decent job."

"Why don't you go to one of the strip clubs?" She took a swig of a bottle. "They always have openings with all the tourists this close to the spaceport."

John bristled. Him? Act like a stripper? He chuckled internally at that idea, but stayed looking indignant.

"Of course..." The Asari put a hand on John's shoulder, and pulled him closer to her. "Maybe we can just go somewhere, and you can put off the job hunt until later, hmm?"

Well, he was hungry... "Sure. I have nothing better to do." John allowed himself to get manhandled (womanhandled?) by the Asari, as they walked out of the bar. The Asari hailed a cab (aircar, VI driven, small ME core), and the two of them sat down in the sleek vehicle.

"Location?" The VI had a female voice, but there was no emotional inflection in it.

The doors sealed, and (John heard the engines throttling at maximum) they were off to the 259th floor of something called the 'Teya Tower'. John grinned as he realized that his prey was bringing them into a perfect location for consumption.

"So, cutie *hic* what's your name?" The journey was short, and soon the aircar set down on a platform near the top of one of the towering archologies.

John climbed out of the car. "Does it matter?" He stretched, showing off his Asari form, as if he was an amorous maiden Asari.

The older Asari came up behind him, and nuzzled his neck. "Aren't you going to ask for mine?"

"Why?" John loosened his control over his form, allowing the rigid head-tentacles of the Asari form to lengthen and soften, providing a more comforting feel to the other Asari.

She grabbed his hand, and almost pulled him into the building before the cab VI spoke. "Your fare was 23 credits. Please pay or authorities will be contacted."

The Asari swore. "Hexed witches... Fine." She pulled out a small, corrugated metal rectangle from her cleavage (a credit chit), and pressed it to a small slot on the dashboard of the taxi.

The VI made a little chiming noise, "Fair paid. That chit has 40,358 credits remaining. Have a nice day!" The air-taxi lifted away, and the drunk Asari came right back to John, trying to lift him into her arms, bridal style, and failed miserably.

Partly because she was acting drunk, and partly because John weighed over 2000 kgs (all the mass of the people he had eaten, converted to the stronger and more malleable Mercer-virus cellular structure).

John helped her up, and she blushed. "My name is Nevera- Nevera Kisiros, cutie, and you are going to be screaming it before the night is out." She pinched his bottom.

They walked into the building, and over to a door, Nevera giggling the whole way. She opened the door with the swipe of a card-key, and pulled John inside.

Locking the door, she began sashaying into the bedroom, only stumbling once in her intoxication. She set herself down on the bed, and gave a 'come hither' expression, biting her lower lip and beginning to unzip her jumpsuit.

When John had devoured the maiden Asari, whose shape he was now wearing, he learned of the species unique mating capabilities. How the Asari melded nerve impulses, for reproduction or recreation, and how this situation would probably be similar to a one-night-stand.

John played the 'innocent virgin' card, appearing nervous, and unsure. Feet off-ballence, hands wringing, and blushing a dark purple, while he near-whispered "I have never done anything like- I mean, I haven't..."

Nevera grinned, and stood up, slipping over to John and pulling him farther into the room. "Relax, and look into my eyes." Her blue eyes stared into John's green ones, as she embraced him.

John noted that she was taller than this current form was, and had to look up as she pulled him close.

Her eyes turned dark black. "Now, Embrace Eternity." She touched her forehead to John's.

He was suddenly aware of new information, and new sensations- Nevera's body, and her memories.

Memories of childhood, youth, were full of wonder and excitement. Memories of family, and of loss- her family died in an aircar accident. Memories of love, then sorrow and anger, as she found it in the hands of so many before they yanked the feeling out from under her. Then memories of pain, as she worked a a freelance mercenary (a Vanguard by 'class') before joining the (very young- one of the founders of the group was human) Blue Suns. Memories of becoming cynical, bitter, and cruel, as she rose through the ranks by surviving, and being absolutely merciless.

Nevera was a commander of a Blue Suns mercenary group. She was responsible for the deaths of more than twenty women, (Turian, Asari, Batarian, and even a Salarian Dalatrass) when she 'gave' them to her soldiers to be used as 'playthings'. As a reward. She was planning on drugging John, and then raping him (her) if she resisted.

And she was not as intoxicated as she appeared to be.

John pushed the memories of the dozens of people he had consumed into her mind, specifically memories of just before being consumed by him, and the memories of what it felt like being consumed by him. Then he jerked back, and felt his mind return to his own body- the neural connection would have been nearly overwhelming for a normal person, but John was anything but normal, and only felt a mildly disconcerting flux as he felt pulled away from Nevera.

* * *

Nevera felt perfect- just enough alcohol in her system to smell slightly drunk, while not impeding her mental functions excessively (a little impairment of motor functions, but not significant), relaxed just enough for a bout of mind-blowing sex, and with a virginal maiden no less! And then, as a backup, the drug aerosolizer was just out of view, with a potent relaxant drug that would have any Asari pliable and relaxed if they breathed in at all after being sprayed.

Then their foreheads touched.

Nevera usually used the meld as a form of foreplay, feeding sensations to her partner until her partner was as aroused as she was, then having the mentioned mind-blowing sex. This time was different. She received no sensations at first, it was analogous to being in the dark, and unable to see or feel any form of air or movement.

Her perspective shifted, and suddenly she was standing above the darkness, looking into it, while it rippled and flexed, sprouting tentacles to reach her.

A tentacle she didn't see touched her in the mindscape, and suddenly the entity knew everything about her. More than she wanted to give it, and more than it was probably wise to give.

Whatever this entity was, it was not Asari, and it was more than capable of absorbing her mind during the meld.

The tendrils withdrew momentarily, before throwing a packet of memories at her.

* * *

_The screams of the infected were everywhere. Private Jackson had to keep firing at the waves of zombies, until evac could-_

_"ZEUS is inbound! He's right on top of usRGHKKkk..."_

_That was the blackwatch patrol, only a street away._

_"What do you mean ZEUS is there? He is over here by bravo team, and we need air support immediately! *schlck!* MY LEGS! HE CUT OFF MY NONONONO AAAAAAHHHHHH!" He cut off the channel- hearing bones and flesh liquefy rapidly was never pleasant._

_A dark, humanoid figure fell out of the sky, faceless, and menacing. Infected too close to the impact crater were liquified, and others within a ten meter radius had been broken and blasted to the ground by the impact force. The creature's arms rippled, and claws extended from the fingers on one arm, while the other bunched up, looking like a scalpel attached to a tentacle arm, covered in small, twitching knife-blades. The scalpel opened, revealing three knife-blade fingers, which flexed before re-forming into the foot-long scalpel blade._

_The entity pulled the scalpel-blade up to head-height, and seemed to tense up._

_It looked ridiculous- just standing there, 40 meters away, stance indicating that is was going to throw something. "Sarge- what's it doing?"_

_The Sargent looked over to the entity, and shouted. "FUCK! IT'S ZEUS! EVERYONE GET DOWN NO-"_

_Faster than the eye could follow, ZEUS, for a lack of a better term, threw the hand, still attached to the arm, in a curving path. The arm elongated, dozens of small knives suddenly ling up along the plain of movement, slicing the infected in half and going through troops, body armor, and lampposts with astonishing ease._

_There were two thumps behind him._

_He looked around, and saw two nearly-identical figures to ZEUS, each with different weapon-like arms._

_"I apologize for this, but we need information." Came from behind him._

_He didn't even have time to turn around before the curved, organic scalpel-like blade erupted from his chest, going straight through the bulletproof armor. He felt his heart stop, massive pain flooding his mind as he was lifted off the ground, and pulled back to the entity._

_"Come on, John- just eat it already. Alex just released a devastator near the 9-11 memorial, and he needs our help on containment."_

_Dark-red and black tendrils swiftly crawled over the man who's memories Nevera was living. Just before merciful darkness took his mind she heard one last thing._

_"This won't end like Manhattan."_

* * *

Nevera lived through that, and dozens of other, similar memories, from women, and men, all humans, until she lived through the death of Aktis Tulian, of of the soldiers 'presumed missing' after the relay 314 incident.

With a shudder, she realized that she was next on this creature's menu, and pushed herself out of the meld with as much biotic force as she could muster.

* * *

John looked at the Asari, who was laying on the bed, her singularity attempting to suck him into a point near the wall behind his lefty shoulder.

She jumped off the bed, and, in midair, threw a small blue ball of fluxing energy at him.

John leaned to the side as it just barely missed, pulling at some of the skin on his Asari disguise. "Really? Is that the best you can do?"

Nevera grimaced. Then screamed, as the beautiful Asari in her room became nightmarish.

John had decided enough was enough. Hundreds of small tentacles swarmed over his Asari disguise, then solidifying, forming a streamlined, faceless black armor, similar to an insect carapace. He noted, with a small amount of amusement, that his body still remained slightly female in appearance, with the armor using the previous disguise as a base.

Nevera gathered dark energy around herself, and charged straight at John. He, in a fraction of a second, countered the charge, and lifted her up off the ground with one hand clasped around her throat.

"I guess you are finished now. Such a shame... But I wonder..." He morphed the fingers of his free left hand into Asari head-tentacles, and brought it up to Nevera's head. "Can I utilize the meld in another form? This will take some fine-tuning, but I think you will agree that it is a useful ability."

Nevera tried to shake her head, speak at all, but the creature ZEUS was cutting off her air.

Lighter flooded into the room, and a booming (but obviously female) voice spoke. "Put the hostage down or you will be fired upon.)

* * *

As soon as Nevera screamed, the building's VI had contacted the local authorities.

The local authorities had sent a gunship.

* * *

John started laughing, the vibrations carried through his armor and made Nevera understandably nervous. "Wow... This got interesting real fast." He took his left hand away from Nevera's head.

She relaxed, until he started speaking again. "I don't have time to interrogate you, so now I'm just going to kill you."

Her neck broke with a snap, and tendrils came out from thin grooves in his armor to absorb the Asari. "I enjoyed our time together... And I hope to do it again sometime!"

* * *

"She's done something to the hostage- open fire!"

The twin guns on the gunship opened fire, shattering the window and hitting the target.

The target just stood there and took it. After the fire stopped, it looked at the gunship, and took a step towards it.

"Control, we may have a problem."

The target began running towards the gunship.

* * *

Mass effect technology was from John's point of view, a cop out. This is especially true when one looks at the weapon technology.

Mass-effect weapons in most of citadel space were the equivalent of rail-guns, that used mass effect fields to decrease the mass of the bullet while it was being fired, and shave the tiny speck that was the 'bullet' off of an ammo block, which was then accelerated to 1.2% lightspeed.

There was also a temporary shield-stabilizer that kept the bullet intact for 1/5th of a second after leaving the barrel.

He had personal experience with human weapons, which ripped massive holes in him if it wan't stopped outright by his structure. The damage, however, was in the mass the bullets ripped off of him- which is why he hated tanks.

But mass-effect weapons? On average, they just punched tiny holes in him.

And that made him a bit annoyed.

* * *

As John lept into the air, he formed one arm into a tendril arm (three fingers, with dedicated musculature, and specific rapid-growth cells that could let him effectively create spider-webs made of tendrils with his own mass), and the other into a hammerfist (three fingers with dedicated musculature, and increasingly dense 'bone' segments, with pockets housing rapid growth cells that were tuned to spike targets).

The gunship pulled back just as he jumped, causing John to appear to miss- until his tendril arm shot a spiked tentacle towards the ship, nailing it underneath one of it's two stubby wings.

The gunship turned it's jets, managing to right itself after a metric ton of weight latched onto a wing.

He reeled himself in, and formed a spike around his hammerfist. He braced himself, and YANKED the last few feet of the tenril back into his hand, nailing the gunship with a single punch dead center.

The spike on his hand was a meter long, and it pierced the underside armor of the gunship like it was tinfoil. Once inside, tendrils split off of the main spike, and began slashing everything the little worm-like knives came across.

* * *

The gunship had a mass-effect core, surrounded by shifting arms and static-absorbing pads, to allow for the device to hover with minimal thruster use, and balance off-set loads.

John's tendrils scythed through the delicate inner workings of the gunship, and it's mass effect core, like a rhino in a sushi bar.

* * *

The gunship immediately began to lose altitude, and John retracted the spike. "Time to go." He jumped off the gunship, and latched onto the outside of the Teya Tower. He watched the gunship descend, hit the ground hard, and explode, before he shifted into the disguise of Nevera Kisiros, hearing the insect-like shifting of his mass as he hung, by one hand, on the side of the building.

John relaxed, increased pressure to his legs, and leapt off the building. His armored form was relatively bulletproof, and tough, but it was also unable to glide. John knew that he could easily survive a drop from the top of one of these towers (he had fallen the length of Omega and landed- on a krogan... There was not much left of the krogan, or any of the vorcha that had been too close to it, but he was fine), and he wanted a more... Stealthy approach.

He dropped, streamlined Asari form and reconstituted jumpsuit (that reminds me- I need to buy another one, he thought) providing minimal air resistance.

As he fell, John inhaled, pulling as much air as he could into his body, where he compressed several lungfulls into a fist-sized nodule. He repeated this four more times, pulling in more and more air, until he was a mere 100 meters off the ground. He saw an alley, between two of the larger buildings, and oriented himself like a skydiver into it.

Then he opened organic hoses to his hands and feet, as he approached the 50 meter mark, and exhaled.

The super-compressed air slowed him enough, that he momentarily halted in mid-air, then fell into the alley, making next-to-no sound. He chucked a bit at that- a metric ton of mass, touching down lightly... Asari always made him giggly after he ate them.

* * *

Justicar Asira had been called to investigate the downed gunship, along with several other officers. They arrived within less than a minute to the crash scene, and the other officers had taken a few seconds to extract the survivor.

The police forces were rarely called for on Thessia, and it was even more rare that there would be significant resistance, but this... She shook her head. This should not have been possible. The survivor of the two-woman crew was visibly shaking, and could not give a clear description of the attacker to the other police- maybe she could have better luck.

"Tell me, child, what was it?" The justicar sat down beside the frazzled gunner, and waited for a response.

"It... It was dark." She began to cry. "I knew Nevera- the woman who was eaten. She-"

The justicar raised a hand. "Eaten? What do you mean, eaten?"

"The... Thing was holding her up, with one hand, and then these... THINGS came out of it's armor and she... She melted into that... That thing..." She stopped speaking, eyes wide in horror. "It was almost like an Asari in shape, but... The tentacles..."

"I will find this entity. What happened next?" The justicar's voice was soft, and motherly.

The gunner started to shake. "We fired, and it just stood there- and took it. As though the shots were not doing anything!" She gasped. "I have seen the cannon on my gunship cut through solid metal... Then it jumped at us! I yelled for the pilot to get away, but it grabbed us with... Something. Like a wire, or rope, but it was the same color- red and black, as the creature." She paused for a moment, as if to gather strength. "Then something penetrated the armor, and destroyed the connection to the mass-effect core. I have never seen anything like it!"

The justicar was silent for a moment, then spoke up again, as the gunner seemed to be having trouble continuing. "Did it stay latched onto your vehicle?"

"No. It jumped off, and had enough mass to destabilize our landing." She jerked a thumb at the long crater that was the result of the crash-landing. "I was trained for a core failure, but that thing... It ruined the ship, then it jumped onto the side of a building and latched on like some monster!"

"Thank you for your help." The justicar stood up, and began to take a closer look at the gunship. There was a hole the size of a turian head in the left control-wing, and the inside... It was as if so someone let a small thresher maw loose inside the vehicle. Almost every system was wrecked, or damaged, in some way.  
Speaking to herself, the justicar began to murmur. "It was able to easily punch through multi-layer metal alloys, beat a talented biotic in a fight, and eat her, but it wasn't krogan. Drell? No... They would have mentioned a shield, and the Drell do not have the type of armor described. Something new then..." The thought was unsettling to the justicar, and she turned away from the gunship.

As she began to walk towards the tower, she heard a collective gasp from an Asari nearby. The woman was staring up at one of the buildings, mouth open.  
Justicar Asira tapped her on the shoulder. "Is there something wrong?"

The woman shook her head. "Have you ever seen a biotic run up a building?" Her tone was dazed, as if she could not believe what she was seeing. "Because that's kind of impressive..."

Asira snapped her head around, and looked where the woman was. On a nearby building, a figure was running up it-an Asari by shape, but...

That might be it.

She activated the communication app on her omni-tool, and dialed the 'justicar only' police hot-line. "Thermamin police control, I am Justicar Asira. I require an aircar immediately. I may have a line on the entity that took out gunship 44278."

The reply was immediate. "An aircar has been dispatched, and it is on the way justicar. Good hunting."

* * *

John was having fun. Omega was a perfect place to flip around (parkour was an essential skill to all of the evolved, and Mercer's children were no exception), but Thessia... The massive archologies were perfect for base jumping, and all the landing platforms were perfect for distance-running. He cleared the launch platform on the Teya tower at a full sprint, and nearly flew through the air to another massive archeology, this one with the word 'Mailsilliac Industries' on top.

He landed hard enough to dent the metal on one of the mid-tower landing platforms, and rolled. The Asari on the platform stared at him, and one of them passed out.  
A thought struck him, and he face-palmed. "Damn it... I left my backpack behind! That bar... The Eternity Bar. I need to get back there ASAP." He walked over to one of the Asari still standing. She was wearing body-hugging armor, and Nevera's memories marked her as an Asari commando. "Do you know where the Eternity Bar is? I am a bit lost..."

The commando rubbed her forehead. "Why don't you just take a cab?"

"True..." John felt the credit chits that Nevera had been holding- he had absorbed them along with her body. He isolated them, and pushed the chits out of his torso, and up his arm, until they could be pushed out of his left hand. He placed the hand in a pocket, and extruded the credit chits into his pocket. "Can you call a cab? My omni-tool is not working..."

The commando huffed. "Tourists. I'll call a cab."

An aircar flew over, and settled on the platform.

John grinned. "Well, that was quick."

The commando looked down at her omni-tool. "Um... That was not me."

The aircar opened, and an Asari dressed in rather skimpy armor stepped out, surrounded by a blue glow. Biotics. Neveran's memories provided a name: Justicar.

Well, shit. Not even a day on Thessia, and he managed to catch the attention of a fanatical religious policewoman...

She raised a hand, glowing with a blue nimbus, and turned her palm down.

20 g's worth of acceleration seemed to push John straight into the deck plates. He ended up on his hands and knees, while the deck plates buckled around him.

"I, am Justicar Asira. You, unknown being, are under arrest for the destruction of police vehicles, the death of one Nevera Kisiros, the death of one police officer, assaulting a second police officer, and destruction of property." Her voice was haughty, and had the feel of someone who had authority, and used it often. "If you are guilty, you will be killed. If you resist arrest you will be killed."

John grinned, despite the effort he was exerting to prevent himself from being pushed into the deck plates. He was never very good with authority.

The commando ran into the building, dragging the limp form of the woman who fainted behind her, as the justicar pulled out her other hand, and, with a flick of the wrist, summoned a blue sphere. A warp field, John thought. Well, I can't hang around here...

He began to form the heavy, dark armor that he knew had already been seen by the gunship pilot(s), but the acceleration pushing him to the deck increased by half over.

"Yes, monster. Show me what you are, so I may slay you." Her voice, though melodic, was starting to grate on John's patience.

"You know... I think I will." John closed his Asari eyes, and began the transformation into his preferred combat form.

* * *

Justicar Asira was thrilled, but cautious. The monster had been caught, in a 30x local gravity field, and it was still moving. Thin tendrils, interlaced together, and rippled over the skin of the creature. Within a few seconds, it was not recognizable as an Asari. A few seconds more, and the surface had smoothed into dark black skin, with red streaks outlining... Something.

Two arms unfolded, and it stood up- in a 30x gravity field!

Two arms, with two fingers and two thumbs, muscles visible, as red streaks outlined the muscles, let off visible quantities of steam. The legs, of which there were two, had two sets of knees (knees, with ankles that were, in effect, backwards knees), and two toes on the front of each foot, as well as two toes on the back. The head was helmet-like, with just a dark surface covering the whole thing. On it's back, there were four small wing-like protuberances, twitching and aligning like control surfaces on a vehicle, and then there was the tail.

The tail was six feet long, and had another two of the small wing-like structures on it. Red lines constantly shifted across the creature as it stretched it's muscles, relaxing even in the high-g field.

Asira threw the warp sphere at the creature, and watched in disbelief as the destructive sphere of energy merely twisted some of the creature' segmented torso out of shape... Then it went right back to the original position.

She activated her omni-tool. "Alert- this is Asira to all Justicars! I have found a void walker- I repeat, I have found a void walker!"

* * *

John cocked his head slightly. 'Void walker'? What in the hell as that? Oh well- it was as good a name as any. He went to all fours, and started crawling out of the heavy gravity field.

The justicar noticed him escaping her trap, and reversed the direction, lifting the field into the air. John felt the gravity reverse, and clamped down, gripping the metal deck with enough force to crinkle the plating as if it was tin foil.

She altered the direction again, and John still held on- he was going to get this... This... Morsel, and then go back into hiding.

Another aircar landed, and out stepped two more Justicars.

"Moritha! Samara! Help me!" Asira was feeling desperate. All the biotics she had were being thrown against this creature, with no significant effect!

The two new Justicars pulled up, as hard as they could. John hunkered down onto the deck, front legs splitting to increase the number of contact points. He brought his tail down, the two wings reshaped into a massive pair of claws, which stabbed into the deck.

"That is not going to work ladies," he rumbled. His form had no 'mouth' with which to speak, so he vibrated his 'face' surface to act as a speaker. "I don't want to kill you... Ok, that' same lie. You look delicious, and I want to eat you, but I don't think that is the ideal course of action."

John just sat there as the three Asari Justicars yanked in different directions, and then began throwing warp-spheres at him.

"Is that really going to work?" He shook his 'head'. "Right. Which one of you is Samara?"

The justicar dressed in red raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care, abomination?"

"Because I wanted to say that I will spare you." Two of John's arms released the deck, and formed into whip-like appendages. The whip fists rippled once, then shot towards the Justicars Asira and Moritha.

The tentacles broke through their barriers like a tsunami going through a china shop.

There was a coughing sound, as Asira looked down and saw the limb, now connecting her stomach and the abomination. "Why?..." She looked at Moritha- she too, was impaled.

John looked at the three Asari. "You attacked me. I only had one snack, and then you show up. I really need to go, so I will make this quick."

* * *

Justicar Samara was no stranger to violence. In all her time as a justicar, she had seen people blown up, mutilated, burned, shredded, and devoured by vorcha and krogan.

But when tendrils begin liquefying your fellow warriors, and they are slurped into tentacles like milkshakes into a straw, it is understandable if she lost control of her temper.

* * *

Samara's biotics went from a glowing nimbus to a nebula, as a bit of purple blood began to drip from her nose. As her comrades finished being absorbed, the tentacles retracted, and John spoke.

"Now, Samara, I don't want to kill you-"

"I DO." With that, she gestured with both hands, and he felt the deck he was latched onto get ripped off the platform.

John mentally frowned. This was not where he wanted to be- then the Justicars he ate bonded with his nervous system.

Pain. Memories of pain, and loss, self-sacrifice and honor. All of their memories were tinged with pain, and the mantra... It just kept resonating with their minds, drowning out everything else...

"NO! I WILL NOT BE SUBSUMED BY FOOD!" John pulled in as much air as he could, compressing it in his torso, and fusing his arms back from four to two.

He cracked open a hole on the 'sole' of each foot, and released the high-pressure air. The resulting jets pushed him free of the gravity field, and John, ever the opportunist, angled his fins to provide just enough direction that he landed on the remaining justicar.

One hand on her head, the other on her primary (probably left) hand, and left foot on the torso, to keep her down. John had spent a long time with Mercer, learning how to do non-lethal takedowns, and he finally had a chance to do so- nevermind the fact that he could not just escape the conflict. Oh well...

John formed his right hand into the Asari head-tentacles, still grasping Samara's head. "Right. Just stop struggling, and you will forget you ever saw me-"

With a monumental yell, Samara's biotics flared, and nearly pushed them into the air (emphasis on nearly). Her nose was bleeding, and, the ragged sound of her breathing was audible to anyone standing within 10 meters (if there had been bystanders on the landing platform).

John sighed. "Look, I just want to leave." His tentacle-hand adhered to Samara's head, and her eyes went from white-blue to black. "And I need you to either let me leave or-"

* * *

- in the mindscape of justicar Samara-

"- be eaten." John's voice resonated within Samara's mindscape. He was the planet she was standing upon, and his voice was the thundering proclamation of an angry god.

"Oh. Sorry. Let me re-calibrate this..." The planet changed into a white room, while Samara stared open mouthed at a dark sphere. "That better?"

She knew this mindscape was merely in her mind, but she was still royally pissed off at this... Abomination. "I will end you, beast. And if I do not-"

"-one of your sisters will?" John was somewhat amused. "To do that, you would need to firebomb the city, possibly the planet, and if I survived I would find a way off." He sighed. "Look, how about a choice then? In good faith."

"A being like you," she spat "has no such concepts."

John's avatar in the mindscape rippled as his voice grew sharp. "REALLY?... Well then, I may as well do anything I want. Shall we look through your memories?" Pictures appeared. "Oh look- you have three daughters. So cute... But wait- all three became Ardat-Yakshi? Ah- sterile, and they kill anyone they meld with. So sad for you..."

Samara grew angrier with each word.

"And then you imprison your daughters? You went along with this?" John was pissed, his voice reverberating hard enough to cause her real-world ears to begin to bleed. "You locked your own daughters away, and when one of them escapes, you hunt her down like a dog?" His voice had no pity in it. "Your bravest and smartest daughter... The one who would be the most like you- and you swore to kill her? Wow. And I thought I was heartless."

Samara was visibly shaking, both in and outside the mindscape. "You speak of things you know not about, monster."

"I was a beast first, now a monster. At least you have conceded I am self aware." John grinned, his avatar growing a massive, smiling humanoid mouth. "What you know, I know now. But I have decided to let you go- the life you lead is horrible. I would not wish it on anyone. So you will go. To. SLEEP."

* * *

-in the real world-

Samara fought the intense desire to sleep, as the creature stepped off of her.

John released her head, her arm, and stepped off of her body. Then he walked to the edge of the landing platform, and his body mass shifted, compressing down into that of an Asari, wearing a hood. "Sleep, Samara. We will probably meet again." His voice sounded Asari now, none of that bone-rumbling that he was using earlier.

John dialed up the omni-tool he had acquired from one of the justicars he had eaten, and contacted a taxi.

* * *

Samara fell asleep just as the taxi flew away, bound for a location unknown to the justicar.

She welcomed the darkness of unconsciousness, and dreamed of crushing the dark beast, sending it back to the void from whence it came.

* * *

John fiddled with the omni-tool for a few minutes of the ride to the Eternity bar, before remembering his Asari form (no, the the Nevera form. The one acquired on Omega... Call it, the 'Omega' form) was wearing a hood. He pulled the mass down, into his dense form, and took a moment to relax. Those Justicars, though powerful were incredibly arrogant. That said, they were deliciously full of knowledge and experience, and he felt the microscopic pellets of eezo in his body bunch together into nodules that would have been visible to the eye.

If I can't utilize the eezo like they can now, I just need more of it, he reasoned. Still, that was a problem to be solved later, he thought, as the taxi pulled up to the entrance to the Eternity.

"The fare will be 22 credits."

He pulled a credit chit out of his pocket, and pressed it to the dedicated port.

"Thank you for your custom. You now have 40,336 credits remaining on that chit." The VI opened the door.

A minute later, John was inside the bar, searching for his backpack. It contained all of his research up to that point, and many technical designs his musings over the years had borne, as he had continued to develop, in concept at least, the alcubierre drive.

"Can I help you?" The voice came from an Asari behind the bar. Her voice was stern, but not unkind.

John heaved a sigh of relief. "Yes. I left a backpack-"

"A what?"

"A satchel- containing my research data and notes." John walked up to the bar, and leaned on it, trying to calm down. If he lost it... "I really need it back."

"Well, I may have just what you were looking for..." The barwoman reached under the bar, and pulled out John's backpack. "Hope nothing is missing."

John began rummaging through the backpack- all of his notes were there, and his sketchbooks, with their designs for potential alcubierre ships were present. "Everything is still here. Thank you..."

"Matriarch Aethyta." Aethyta took out a dishcloth, and began cleaning some cups.

John raised an eyebrow, as he slung the pack over his shapely shoulders (yes, still Asari formed). "Why are you working at a bar, matriarch? Are there not places where your wisdom is wanted?"

Aethyta leaned over the bar, dark dress hugging her curves. "My 'wisdom' is not wanted." She snorted. "I recommend that we build some mass-relays of our own, and I get the blue laughed off my ass."

"It would be a momentous undertaking indeed, but wouldn't it pay off in the long run?" John was curious- this is an idea he had not heard of in his travels so far. Granted, alcubierre drives could make the relays obsolete, but it was still impressive.

Aethyta went back to cleaning the glass. "I thought so- but the tight-asses in power are more concerned about consolidating their power before we expand again." She put the glass down, and shook her finger. "I remember what the quarians looked like without their suits! I am one of the oldest living Asari, and do they take me seriously? Of course not!"

"I cannot imagine why." John was almost laughing- she had a chip in her shoulder, and it was getting the better of her. "So... Two questions. First- what's good, because I need a drink after today,-"

She laughed. "We have some nice Asari tea."

"I would like one... Thanks. Second question - What do they look like without the suits?"

She looked startled by the question, nearly dropping the cup of tea. "The Quarians?"

"I am certainly not talking about the volus- I know what they look like, and it is not pleasant for my appetite."

Aethyta smiled. "That, I understand. The Quarians..." She sounded lost in thought for a moment. "Streamlined. The men were always very trim, compared to the batarians, and the women... They were elegant. Gave us Asari a run for our money in terms of attractiveness." She pointed. "Why don't you go introduce yourself- she looks depressed, and could probably use a friendly ear."

"... Sure- I don't have anything else planned today." He muttered that part- almost all the beings he consumed had negative views on the Quarian, but that was never a good indicator of a people. The collective experiences of those he devoured could be summed up in a sentence.

Efficient, clever, and clean.

He drank the slightly glowing blue tea, and sighed, stood up, and walked over to the Quarian.

* * *

Leti'Zorah vas Rayya was having a bad day, and the sterile brandy she was sipping through the emergency induction port was helping, but not in the way she would have liked, nor the way the fleet needed.

A hand touched her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Leti'Zorah started laughing- oh, she was tipsy now. Great. "No. No, I am not alight you bosh'tet von tasi! My daughter is going to die because I cannot get one measly comet in time... What does that say about me?"

* * *

John sat down across from the Quarian. "I think it means you are drunk."

She sounded indignant. "I'm not drunk! Who dared say I was drunk? I'll... I'll..." She stopped. "Yeah. I probably am drunk. Why do you care?"

"I normally would not- in my experience, it is always best to let the hangover teach why getting drunk is not such a good idea, however, circumstances are not ideal right now, and I would like ride off-planet."

She stared at him. "Why would an Asari want to leave Thessia? Isn't this planet the" her voice became cynical, even through the speakers on her helmet, "'beating heart of galactic love'? "

John rubbed his nose. "It is supposed to be, but I am not exactly welcome here. I can pay for the trip-"

"Not with credits! Too few places accept credits after they have been in Quarian hands... Saying that we stole them, or something. I just don't care anymore."

John sighed. Well, at least I get to use the name I decided to use as a pseudonym, he thought. "Let's start this again- Hello, my name is Aku- FTL engineer and engine designer. And you are?"

"Aku is a silly name... Sorry." She stopped giggling. "I am Leti'Zorah vas Rayya, current fleet acquisitions director." Her omni-tool lit up, and she tapped a few buttons on it. "And this is my daughter- we managed to put her in a bubble last week- it's why I am on duty now." She hiccuped. "Well, I was on duty. Now I need to report to the admiralty board that we won't have enough water to support the fleet in a month..."

John held up a hand. "I know- I overheard your conversation with that Hanar jackass. If you do not accept credits- how about a comet? In payment for bringing me to the human embassy on the Citadel."

Her facial expression was not visible through the mask, but her helmet cocked to the side by 20 degrees. "Why the human embassy?"

John grinned. "That's a secret! However, in exchange, I will use my credits, and all my resources, to make sure your people get a comet- or something better. Deal?" He held out his hand.

Handshakes were apparently a constant in the galactic cultures, according to his acquired memories.

Leti'Zorah reached across the table, then slipped under it. "Deal! But first... Can you help me up? I am more drunk than I thought..."

* * *

Matriarch Aethyta was perplexed. That Asari did not feel like an Asari, and did not move like one, but she was polite, and did not appear to have any of the anti-Quarian mentality that so many of the younger generation seemed to have these days... She glanced down to where the Asari had leaned on the table, and there, visible to the naked eye, was a dent. The last being to dent her bar was a krogan, and the only reason he did so was because she biotic lay slammed his head into the countertop.

She scratched her head-tentacles, and thought: I have got to get off Thessia. Maybe Illium- I could start another bar easily.

* * *

End of chapter 2

* * *

Right. As usual, please review- I love to read the reviews. Feel free to PM me with ideas for the next chapter- I may take your ideas into consideration... Or not. Depends if it fits the storyline so far.

Oh, and yes- John is a bit OP, but he has had over a hundred years to learn how to use his viral form to the best of his ability.

Take it easy!


	4. Chapter 3- BlackLight

(Author's note- start)  
A few things before the chapter begins.  
First off- biotics. I have done some research in how they are supposed to work, and I have tried to figure out how they would feel.  
To summarize- biotics allow an entity to create a gravitational gradient, which they use to manipulate objects via mass-effect fields.  
If you want to move something with biotics, you need to generate a force that is greater than the local gravitational acceleration.  
In the previous chapter I mentioned '30x local gravity'. That was a measure of the acceleration being applied to John by the Justicars biotic abilities. It was either that or describe 330 m/s^2 of acceleration.

Second- the Eternity Bar  
The eternity bar was owned and operated by Matriarch Aethyta. It was initially on Thessia (as per the story, she is considering moving to Illium), and in mass effect 2 it is available on Illium. I do wish to establish some form of continuity, to keep things recognizable to the readers.

Also- I apologize if the quality isn't that good. I was trained to write essays and reports, not stories. I have, however, been correcting very mistake I could find (or was told about), and I expect the quality of my chapters to get better as time goes on.

Now, a little recap on the plot so far:  
Shanxi was invaded- and John was able to get a lift off by pretending to be a turian. After that, he ended up going to Palaven, then Omega (he was stuck there for 5 years due to Aria T'Loak getting pissed at him). When he managed to get off Omega, the only place he could afford to travel to was Thessia.  
He managed to, within a day of arrival, piss of the Justicars. He has now bartered with a (somewhat drunk) Quarian for transport off Thessia, promising a comet in exchange, and now, our protagonist is in a shuttle heading up to the ship.

Enjoy!

Oh, and to be safe- the Rating has been raised to M... For Violence.  
(Author's note- end)

* * *

**Ch 3 BlackLight**

* * *

John and Leti'Zorah flew to the orbiting Quarian ship in Leti'Zorah's shuttle.

"Why are't you drunk anymore?" John was honestly curious. "It has only been... What- fifteen minutes?"

"Cybernetics. So..." Leti'Zorah had burned through the liquor, and was now flying the shuttle to orbit.

"Destination locked." The on-board VI spoke. "Ready to take over for approach."

"Allowing VI control in 3. 2. 1. Control passed." She pressed a holographic control, and the holographic a changed to a countdown- countdown to rendezvous. "So, Aku... Do you have airtight armor? The ship is mostly a cleanroom, and you will need to be decontaminated before being allowed on-board."

John mentally face palmed. Of course he would need to be isolated somehow. "I have some armor- it's in my backpack."

"There is a clean room in the back. Get dressed- we will be docking with the _Rayya_ in... half an hour."

John slipped out of the seat, and walked into the cargo compartment. The 'clean room' was the bay- a sterilizing field swept the bay when it sealed, to prevent contamination. He opened his backpack, and- surprise- there was only the notes on FTL in the bag, but he stuck his hand in anyway, then triggered his armor form.

The black armor seemed to crawl up his hand, then elbow, then shoulder, eventually flowing over his whole body, forming into an androgynous full-body suit of black armor.

He mentally sealed the suit, and re-enforced it into an even denser form than usual- no need taking risks. He needed armor that looked like armor, not just a combat form. After checking in the mirror, he walked into the decontamination room, and, after a moment to debate whether or not this would kill him, he turned on the field.

His skin BURNED where the field touched him, but he was unharmed- mostly. His fingers were gone.

"Crap..." He regenerated new ones, complete with armor, but his voice had attracted the attention of the Quarian.

"What? Is something wrong... Wow." She leaned against the door. "That... I was not expecting."

John knew what he looked like- he was looking at the mirror. Six-and-a-half feet of black armor, with organic lines, and no visible face- just a smooth, black curved helmet for the head. No sexually dimorphistic features stood out, but since this armor was formed off the Asari base, it was almost... Elegant. "I can't get you a version. My armor is rather... Specialized. Don't you need to be at the controls?"

"Not yet. The VI is taking us into range. When I am needed, I will know." She poked the shiny, black armor. "So... What model of armor is it?"  
I may as well have some fun with this, he thought. "BlackLight armor, Mercer variant."

"... Never heard of it."

John mentally smiled. "I would not expect you to. It's rather unique now- I only knew of four versions in existence." He softened his voice. "The other ones were destroyed with their wearers."

"Well then, mind if I do a few checks? To see if it is fit to come onto the fleet?" Leti held up her omni-tool.

"Sure." John walked out of the sterilizing chamber, and placed his backpack near the door.

"Right. Lift your arms above your head- yes, like that. Now hold still." A thin panel of holographic light appeared, which expanded to at least 30 cm per side. She lifted the panel above his head, and brought it down over his body. "... Wow. That armor is... Keelah- is it alive? That armor is probably dense enough to shrug off a tank shell."

He bent and picked up his backpack again. "In a way, yes, it is alive. The inside interfaces with me directly, and allows the armor to repair damage from the inside out fairly quickly. The question is- is it safe enough for the fleet?"

"It... Should be. I will recommend a secondary scan, when we dock, just to make sure... But you should be safe enough."

John had to keep from laughing. The Mercer virus ate EVERYTHING that tried to infect it. As long as he didn't make any Evolved, or release a plague, he was technically sterile enough to work in any clean room- it was one of the few things Mercer drummed into his children, on threat of consumption, if you refused to follow the rules.

The VI spoke up. "Priority com contact from the _Rayya_- do you want it patched to your suit? We are holding position at 500 meters off the bow."

"Yes." She pressed a button on her omni-tool, and an image of another Quarian appeared, projected on the hologram.

Male Quarians usually wear that setup, John remembered.

"This is Rael'Zorah, contacting the Puddlejumper from the _Rayya_. Conformation code?"

"Many ways and paths may lead to the same location. I shall need but only one."

"Welcome back Leti! Why haven't you initiated docking?"

Leti tapped a few keys on her omni-tool. "This is why, Rael. We may have a way to get the water that we need, and I have a passenger."

"A Quarian?"

"No. I just sent you a picture of her in full armor."

"... Keelah..."

"Exactly. Set up a secured location for our guest- I need to speak to the captain as soon as we dock. Remember- our shuttle is not clean"

"Right Leti. Oh, and one more thing-"

"What?"

"I missed you, and so did Tali. Here she is now!"

"Hi mommy!"

* * *

The shuttle was docked, and the door was opening.

"ATTENTION!" The Quarian marines holstered their weapons, as Leti'Zorah walked out of the ship. "My guest is NOT, repeat NOT, to be harmed."

"That's comforting Ms. Zorah." John stepped out of the shuttle, and watched the marines stiffen. "I guess I should probably not make any sudden moves?"

"Aku, joking in front of twitchy marines is not a healthy course of action." Leti admonished, but John could hear the amusement in her voice. "Come on- we need to get you to the secondary scanner, and then get underway."

John followed Leti through the maze of passages on the _Rayya_, eventually coming to a room that was equivalent to a med bay.

"Is this the 'guest'?" Another Quarian came into the room, wearing a long, white jacket that looked like a cook's. "What is she?"

"Actually, I have no gender," John chuckled. "I am whatever gender I want to be."

"Right. Standard Asari statement." She began pressing buttons on one of the devices, and gestured at a platform. "Please stand on that so I can scan you."

John complied, and waited until the scan was underway before speaking again. "I am not Asari."

"I honestly doubt... That..." The doctor stopped talking for a moment, sealed the scanning chamber then: "Leti'Zorah, look at this."

Even through the mask, Leti'Zorah's eyes appeared to bug out of her skull. "I don't even..." Then she hurriedly pressed several buttons on her omni-tool. "Code black! Code black! We have a first-contact scenario!"

Several Quarian marines ran into the room, rifles at the ready.

"What about our deal?" John was somewhat worried- if they spaced him, it would a cold and unpleasant journey to the surface... At least, until he began to enter the atmosphere. Then it would be hot, and uncomfortable. "Our deal was-"

"I know what it was." Another Quarian walked up, - the captain. She was female, and had several stripes on her hood. "What's the situation?"

"Captain- this entity has both Levo and Dextro proteins in it's system." The doctor was typing furiously away at a terminal. "However, it does not seem to have any dangerous life-forms on the surface of it's armor at all. No bacteria, no viruses. Nothing. And the scans cannot penetrate the armor, so..."

"Armored up in the clean room aboard the shuttle, right?" The captain clapped. "Well- no sense in treating you like anything but a guest- after all, you are willing to get us a comet, yes?"

John nodded. "Yes. And, if you are patient, we may have more we can offer each-other. Please don't space me."

That made the captain laugh. "We won't space you. Marines! Put your weapons away. This... Aku, was it? Aku is a guest of the fleet, and should be treated as such."

The scan-chamber opened, and John stepped out. He noticed that all of the marines were watching him even more closely now- best to put them at ease, he thought, I don't like being outside without an atmosphere.

He walked over to the captain. "Captain, I apologize for the deception of my species- but I cannot tell you what species I am. In light of this, I request that we head to the Citadel with all due haste- I need to contact the human embassy as soon as possible."

The captain rubbed her chin. "Very well. And how do you intend to pay us?" She began to walk out of the room.

John followed her. "When we get to the Citadel, I will locate a resource-supplier. I have collected quite a few credits, and I will purchase the necessary materials for the fleet. If you had a list of resources needed, from most important to least important, I could collect them. When we dock to the Citadel."

The captain rounded a corner, followed by John, with Leti following close behind. "You mean when we land on the Citadel, right?" The captain's voice had a lit of amusement in it.

"... Yes."

The group turned another corner, and entered into a large room. Twenty Quarians were controlling various terminal stations inside it, and a marine snapped to attention. "Captain! Orders?"

The captain sat down on a chair, with sight vantages that allowed her to see everything. "Bridge crew, set course for the Citadel- tell the fleet we will have their water soon, and perhaps some more needed resources."

"Yes, captain. Pilot- set course for the relay. Navigator- begin relay handshake: destination, relay 01-3."

"Crew of the _Rayya_, this is the captain. We will be arriving at the Citadel in 5 hours. Requisitions will be collected within 2." She turned off the intercom. "Leti'Zorah, will you please escort Aku to your quarters? I will permit your family time off the duty roster for our... Guest."

Leti walked up behind John, and tapped him on the shoulder. "Follow me please."

The two of them walked through the ship for a while, neither speaking, until they came to a small door on the side of one of the hallways.

Leti knocked on the door, and it opened to reveal another Quarian- male, with red components in his armor.

"Who are you?" He sounded obstinate, and worried.

"Be nice, Rael!" She rubbed one of his shoulder pads. "This is Aku. She is-"

"I recommend the use of a male pronoun. It will make the next few days easier." John was trying hard not to laugh.

"He is the reason we are heading to the Citadel." She pulled Rael inside. "Come in- we can introduce you to our family!"

The quarters were very minimalistic- no significant furniture was visible. Most of the space was filled with computing equipment, or rations, and there was barely enough room for more than 3 people.

Rael and Leti pulled some collapsible chairs out, and set them up.

"Please- sit." Leti was being very polite.

"Thanks." John was honestly grateful- they were going out of their way to show hospitality, when they had very little. He didn't really sit down- balancing just enough weight on the fair to look as though he was sitting, as he doubted the small seat could support a 2000 kg mass resting on it.

Rael sat down, and looked at John. "Why do you need the help of our people to get to the Citadel?"

John shrugged. "The opportunity was there, and I took it. Also, my presence on Thessia would not be... Conductive... To the local population." He leaned in closer to the Quarians. "I managed to piss off a justicar."

The Quarians exchanged glances. "What did you do?"

"Ah... That would be telling." John balanced so he appeared to lean back in his chair. "Nothing that will effect your people though."

Rael intertwined his fingers. "What do you want with -"

A small Quarian child in a translucent ball rolled out of one of the doors, and bounced off the back of John's chair. She picked herself up, and maneuvered over to behind Leti.

"Ha!" John laughed. "Is this yours?"

"Yes." Leti'Zorah's voice sounded like she was smiling. "This is Tali. Say hi to the nice man Tali!"

"... Hi." She peeked out from behind the chair, bubble pressed up against it.

"Pleased to meet you, little one. My name is Aku." John thought that he REALLY needed to set up a better identity then that.

"How can you speak Khelish so well?" Leti picked up Tali's ball and cuddled it.

"I had good teachers." John mentally laughed at this- the Justicars knew how to speak it, and now, so did he. "Your mate does not look very happy to see me."

Rael had his arms crossed, sitting in the chair across from John. "You... Are not what you appear to be. I am suspicious."

"Of course I am not." John reached into his backpack. "But I can show you why I want to get to the Citadel." He took out his design notes, and handed them to Rael.

"... What am I looking at? Ship schematics?"

"For a new FTL method. Specifically, a version of it that does not rely on element zero." John was very smug. "It's my life's work."

"Why?" Leti was still holding Tali's ball, and the little one had begun to nap.

"Reliance on only one method of FTL travel is..." John trailed off, unsure of the word he needed. "Unsecure. Restricting. Imagine if the relays were destroyed? Galactic civilization would collapse."

Rael nodded. "I can understand that. But why not just make a better version of the mass effect engines?"

Leti picked up Tali, and left the room, carrying her bubble.

"There are diminishing returns. I would expect the maximum end of FTL using eezo is limited to maybe 20,000 times lightspeed." John pulled out a sketch book. "These ships could conceivably hit 100,000 times lightspeed, given proper calibration. Likely much faster, as there is no real limit defined by the known laws of physics for the drive."

Leti walked back in. "Tali is asleep Rael."

He looked at Leti, and nodded. "Good. She has had a long day." He turned back to John. "Have you tested it?"

John fidgeted in his seat. "Yes... Once. My prototype was destroyed, and I need to build another one."

Leti leaned forward, elbows on knees. "What happened?"

"It dug a hole through the planet I was testing it on..."

Rael began laughing.

"Let me guess..." Leti was trying not to laugh. "You had it in reverse, and didn't know, right?"

"... Yes..."

"Bwahahahahaha!" Rael fell off his chair, laughing.

"... Are you going to continue laughing?"

"Yes." Rael got up, still chuckling. "But I did something similar a few years ago. We upgraded the drive core of a ship, and we ended up putting it in backwards at first. Really embarrassing at the time, but amusing to remember."

"I still didn't like. That said.." John pulled out one of the many spare sketchbooks he had brought. Paperback, with over 300 pages, heat-pen built into the spine, ready for use. "I may as well give you a gift- hospitality is rare enough from what I have seen to risk it in any way."

Rael stopped laughing, and Leti's eyes grew wide at the sight of the book. "Paper... Real paper..."

"I know it isn't much, until I have time to collect the resources, but it should be useful." John wasn't sure why his hosts were just staring at it, as if it was some exotic gift. "... Did I do something wrong?"

"N-no." Leti picked up the sketchbook. "It's just... Rare. There are fewer books like this than ships in the flotilla..."

"Well then," John could not keep the smug tones out of his voice. "Make sure it is put to good use."

Rael looked at John, then back at the sketchbook. "It will be." He straightened. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

Leti held the sketchbook as though it was made of gold- or something the Quarians found equally valuable.

John looked around, taking in his surroundings. Everything seemed.. Patched. Repaired. From his memories (the memories of the people he had devoured), he knew that the Quarians were some of the smartest people in the galaxy, both in terms of how easily they learned to apply new technology, and how well they maintained it. Yet... "What happened to your homeworld?"

Leti sighed. "We created an AI by accident- the geth, and they forced us off our planets."

"Why not colonize a new world?"

"The Citadel Council ejected us from the Citadel, due to our creation of AI," Rael's voice was a snarl, "and if we colonize a planet that is 'suitable' for another race, we will be bombed off of it."

"Is the view against artificial intelligence really that negative?" John was unsettled- the council may not even let him get to the human embassy if they were that intolerant.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Leti shrugged. "As far as we know, artificial intelligences have never been a good thing- all attempts to create them have ended with disaster."

There was a knock on the door. Leti got up to open it, and there was the captain, flanked by several marines. She saluted.

"At ease, Leti'Zorah." The captain walked in, and began looking at the book describing the alcubierre drive. "This would be sufficient payment for the trip- assuming it was scanned into our computer system."

John shot to his feet- the speed startled all the Quarians in the room. "No."

"But think about the benefits to the flotilla!"

John picked up his work, and placed it back in the backpack. "I can't give it to you. Not yet, anyway."

The captain crossed her arms. "Why not?"

"Your culture is half of what I need." John relaxed, and slipped his backpack into place. "Your culture is clever, intelligent, and technologically advanced- but it has limited resources, and is... Inflexible." He began to pace, when a section of floor under his left foot gave a squeak, and distorted. "See what I mean? Everything is going to your ships, and they can only support your population for so long."

"So... What?" The captain was cross. "You charter passage on my ship, which you have yet to pay, and then you insult us?"

John face-palmed. "You will be paid, and hopefully, I will be able to give these designs to people who can use them. No insults were meant- I was merely making a point."

He sat back on the chair, which promptly collapsed under his weight. "Um... Sorry about that." He got back up off the floor, while the Quarians stared at the crumpled chair.

The captain's omni-tool began to beep. She answered it with a finger-tap. "Yes, officer? What is it?"

"Captain, ma'am... There is a ship following us."

* * *

A Batarian ship, _The Master's Wrath_, had been following the Quarian vessel since it left Thessia interdiction space. The master of the ship, Gerkek, had his clawed hands clasped as all four eyes stared at the ship on the tactical grid.

"Gunner!" He shouted. "Is the Quarian ship in range of our guns?"

A Batarian sitting at one of the control consoles spoke up. "They will need to drop out of FTL to access the relay- we are jamming relay handshakes. We will be within gun range when we drop out of FTL."

"Pilot! When do we drop out?"

Another Batarian, this one wearing some sort of helmet, checked a countdown near his controls. "30 seconds to intercept with relay."

"Right." Gerkek got out of his seat, and activated his omni-tool. "All boarding parties- prepare to launch! Retrieve as many slaves as possible- if you can, we take the ship! Blood Pack- eliminate all resistance!"

"The Quarian ship is dropping out of FTL!"

"Fire the immobilizer!"

* * *

"Batarians?"

"Yes captain. They are following us, and we are dropping out of FTL due to proximity to the relay- our handshakes are not being accepted."

The captain pressed a couple of buttons on her omni-tool, then spoke. "Attention- prepare to repel boarders. All non-combat personnel need to head to the safe room."

A thud reverberated through the ship.

"Captain!" The voice over the intercom almost sounded panicked. "The engines have been shut down by a wide-bore plasma pulse- all the primary thrusters have been disabled! Engineering teams are working to bring them back online now."

Leti ran into the room where Tali was sleeping, and then ran out of the room carrying Tali, still sleeping in her bubble. She ran out of the room where John, Rael, and the captain were staring at each other, and vanished from sight.

"Good policy." John nodded. "Protect the ones who cannot fight, and keep them together, so they can be easily defended."

"That means you too." Rael grabbed John's arm, and tried to pull him out the door.

John didn't budge an inch. "I am not a child, nor am I helpless."

The marines pointed their rifles at John, and the captain spoke directly to him. "You wish to help defend the _Rayya_?"

"Of course."

"Why?"

"It will be fun, and I don't want to fly this ship on my own. That would be boring."

"Fine." The captain gestured to one of the marines. "Give him your pistol-"

"No need." John held up his hands. "I am armed already."

The captain waved her hand dismissively. "Fine. But if you die, we get your belongings."

"Deal." John stretched- it was mentally relaxing before any fight. "Should I start hunting them when they try to board?"

The captain was already occupied by other tasks. "Yeah. Sure."

John turned to Rael. "Mind if I go have some fun with uninvited guests?"

Rael suddenly looked nervous."Um... Yeah. Sure."

John placed his hands on the floor, and tuned out everything, focusing on his sense of touch.

He felt everything on the ship. The voice of the captain, barking orders into her omni-tool. Rael's fidgeting while he held a pistol. The marines, so tense they almost vibrated. The almost stampede sound of people rushing to practiced locations. The sound of cannons firing away at some target he could not detect (the target was probably an approaching boarding pod or a ship). The steady flux of the drive core.

He felt/heard the docking pod latch on.

He felt the 'clang' of an airlock being forced open. The sound of boots- not suited feet, but boots. The voices of many non-Quarians, probably Batarian by the timbre, but he felt the hissing of vorcha, and the rumble of at least one krogan voice. All of it rumbled through the floor, and he felt all of it.

One level below them, aft- that's where the boarders were docked.

John stood up, the speed still surprising the captain. "Where do I need to go to access the deck below this one?"

"... Um..."

"Nevermind- I will find it myself." Suddenly, John momentarily glowed orange, then quickly faded back to black. He put down his backpack. "Good hunting, captain. Rael." He took off, running down the hall as fast as he could in that form, denting the floor with every step.

* * *

Rael looked at the captain, then at the dents in the floor where Aku had run off. He was going to 'hunt' the boarders? What did that even mean?

The captain stared at the ruined chair, which Aku had sat on, and the depressions in the floor that marked where he had run. "I think, Rael, that our guest may be more than it appears."

Rael swallowed. "Captain Raan... You may be right."

She pointed to two marines. "You two- pursue our 'guest' and see what he's going to do."

* * *

The Blood Pack was wary- they may have just gotten out of the boarding pod, but that was no excuse to be unprepared. A krogan stepped out of the boarding pod, followed by vorcha, then by several batarians. The vorcha were armed with flame throwers and pistols, while batarians were armed with electro-shock rifles (anti-synthetic weapons, able to incapacitate organic life-forms like a long-range taser).

They were all dwarfed by the krogan who was carrying a massive hammer, and a spike thrower (similar to a shotgun, but fires 10-cm spikes instead of mass-effect accelerated shot).

"FAN OUT AND DESTROY ALL RESISTANCE!" The krogan bellowed, vorcha scrambling to obey.

One of the Batarian leaned against a wall. "We want slaves, not scrapKKJ!"

A dark, armored hand had burst out of the wall, and grabbed his neck with no warning. It lifted the struggling Batarian off the ground, before retreating back into the hole it had made, bringing some of the batarian's body with it.

His head made a sickening sound as it was ripped off the body, and his body stopped twitching, and slid down the wall, leaving a bloody trail.

"CONTACT!" The krogan hefted his hammer. "We have contact!"

* * *

John was having so much fun! His hunting pulse had picked up a krogan, and now, he was homing in on it. Down the ladder (jump- it couldn't have taken his weight anyway). He jumped down the stairs, denting the metal paneling under his feet. And... There was a wall in the way. John stood there for a moment, as he considered his next options. Rip open the door? Nah, he thought, too much damage to the ship. His hosts might not like that...

He stopped moving, and listened.

* * *

The Quarian marines turned another corner, following the impact depressions of their guest. They found him, standing in front of the door that led to one of the emergency air locks, not moving at all.

"Sir- what are you doing here?"

"This."

He walked over to one of the walls, and thrust his hand into it up to the elbow. Then he yanked, and pulled a batarian- well, the head of one, out of the hole in the wall.

It was dripping, and twitching as Aku held it.

* * *

John dropped the head to the floor, and looked at one of the marines. "Open the door."

"Why should I-"

A flamethrower muzzle, complete with pilot light, popped out of the hole. John grabbed it, and pulled. The vorcha's arms came through the hole with the gun, and left the rest of the vorcha behind.

"If you don't open the door, I will need to continue to open this wall."

Another gun muzzle was poked through the hole- a pistol this time. John grabbed it, and crushed the alloys with his bare hand.

The marines looked at each other for a second, as John bent the wall back into position.

"That should prevent them from getting the drop on you."

A bang resonated with the ship, and a large dent appeared on the wall. This dent was on the opposite side of the door from John's hole.

"... Sure. I will open the door, as long as you promise not to punch any more holes in the ship" The marines jumped when there was another titanic BANG, and the wall

deformed again.

"Agreed. Just hurry!"

One of the marines opened a program on his omni-tool, and pressed a few symbols.

A hologram activated, and suddenly there was a green circle on the door.

John begins to poke the green circle with a finger, then stops. "I need a theme song for this." He activates his omni-tool, and activates a song on it.

The marines looked confused. "A theme song?"

John shrugged. "I like having fun with my prey. This one is called 'Indestructible', by a band called 'Disturbed'. It's a classic." He looked back at the marines. "One more thing... You may want to stand far back- I tend to make a bit of a mess."

After a moment of waiting, for the song to get to a dramatic point, he pushes the green circle.

* * *

Gro'og Gelack was annoyed. Something had killed two of his vorcha, and although he regarded them with the same displeasure that was usually reserved for scale-itch, they were decent cannon fodder.

And he had not even seen this enemy yet!

He growled and swung his war hammer again, deforming the wall even more. Three swings in, and he had not been able to penetrate the bulkhead, something that their enemy casually did.

There was a siren-like sound, then the sound of whirring blades, and the sounds of primitive electronic synthesized music came from from behind the door.

"You two," he pointed at a vorcha and a Batarian. "Check it out."

_'Another mission, the powers have called me away'_

The vorcha and Batarian trained their weapons on the door.

_'Another time to carry the colors again'_

The door opened, a black insect-like figure standing in the doorway, the music, if it could be called that, blaring from it's omni-tool.

_'My motivation, and oath I've sworn to defend'_

* * *

John extended his arm, and flipped the bird to the whole room full of vorcha, batarians, and one krogan.

Then he just stood there, hands at his sides. Relaxed. Waiting.

_'To win the honor of coming back home again'_

The entire room trained their weapons on him, and the krogan pulled out a nasty-looking weapon from his hip.

_'No explanation will matter after we begin'_

They opened fire- cracking his armor, and penetrating into John's form, but not doing any damage beyond that.

_'Unlock the dark destroyer that's buried within'_

They continued firing, alternating ranks to stop and cool down their weapons.

_'My true vocation, and now my unfortunate friend,'_

The krogan's weapon made a low-pitched ticking sound, and fired 10cm spikes into John's head and body at low velocity. They got lodged in his body, and John just let them there, still just standing in the door.

_'You will discover a war you're unable to win!'_

The batarians stopped firing, feeling something was wrong. The vorcha kept firing, wasting ammo.

_'I'll have you know'_

"Hold your fire!" The krogan roared, and he took out a war hammer, with a spiked and unpleasant-looking head.

_'That I've become'_

"This one's mine." The krogan swung his war-hammer at John's head.

_'Indestuctible!'_

John caught the war-hammer with one hand.

_'Determination that is incorruptible'_

The war-hammer shattered in John's hand, and he felt a surge of satisfaction seeing a horrified expression on the krogan.

_'From the other side, a terror to behold'_

John tossed the broken weapon away, krogan and all.

_'Annihilation will be unavoidable'_

He began to walk into the room, slowly, and calmly, while every single being except the krogan watched him

_'Every broken enemy will know'_

No-one moved, as John pulled out the 10cm spikes.

_'That their opponent had to be invincible'_

His armor re-sealed.

_'Take a last look around while you're alive'_

John cocked his arm, and threw the spikes into the heads of several vorcha around the room, each unerringly hitting dead-center in the vorcha's forehead.

_'I'm an indestructible Master of War!'_

John's armor re-sealed. He crouched, and ran at several batarians that had been smart enough to point their weapons at him. His hand penetrated their shields, armor, and bodies like a gunshot, his arms moving too fast for anyone in the room to see.

He grabbed a vorcha that was too close, and ripped it in half, feeding tendrils latching on and sucking the corpse into his body.

_'Another reason, another cause for me to fight'_

John began audibly laughing as he absorbed the vorcha- all it's memories were his, though, they tasted... Gamy.

'_Another fuse uncovered, now for me to light'_

A Batarian in the room shouted "FIRE EVERYING!"

_'My dedication to all I've sworn to protect'_

John leapt towards the krogan, who was firing along with everyone else.

_'I carry out my orders without a regret'_

The krogan fired a sight-cluster of the spikes right into John's head, as he was less than a meter from the krogan, arms outstretched, claws extending.

_'My deceleration, embedded deep under my skin'_

The tight cluster of spikes had enough momentum to pierce John's armor, and had been heated inside the weapon to a temperature that was high enough to boil water in less than a second.

John's head was ripped open, and he just kept moving.

_'A permanent reminder of how it began'_

John's headless body grabbed the krogan's spike thrower, and crushed it between both hands until it was a mere ball of metal.

_'No hesitation when I am commanded to strike'_

Tentacles writhed where John's head used to be, and, after a second of disconcerting movement, his smooth black helm had re-formed.

_'You need to know that you're in for the fight of your life'_

The krogan roared, and slashed at John's armor, scoring it slightly.

He was back-handed into a bulkhead so hard that his head-plate cracked.

_'You will be shown'_

With his right hand, John grabbed the krogan's shoulder, and lifted him up.

_'How I've become'_

With his left hand, he grabbed the edge of the head-plate.

_'Indestructible!'_

He pulled.

_'Determination that is incorruptible'_

The krogan fought as hard as he could, but he could not stop the slow, constant force John was exerting.

With a sticking crack, the krogan's head plate was ripped clean off.

_'From the other side, a terror to behold'_

John threw the cracked head-plate at a Batarian hard enough to bisect it, and plunged a hand into the krogan's exposed brain.

_'Annihilation will be unavoidable'_

The krogan began to shudder as thin black feeding tendrils extended from John's armor, and embedded themselves in the exposed flesh of the krogan.

_'Every broken enemy will know'_

The krogan was liquified inside his suit, and absorbed by John, who promptly backhanded an approaching vorcha.

_'That their opponent had to be invincible'_

Holding the krogan's spike thrower, now just a lump of metal, John threw it at the last Batarian in the room.

_'Take a last look around while you're alive'_

The chunk of metal slammed into the alien's helmet, and slammed the helmet against the wall, shattering the batarian's head.

_'I'm an indestructible'_

The remaining vorcha and batarians were cowering at this point, weapons barely being held in numb fingers.

_'Master of war!'_

John turned off the song. "Who wants to surrender?"

Every single person in the room, vorcha, batarians, and the two Quarian marines who had just walked in, dropped their weapons.

John facepalmed, and tried hard not to laugh. "You two-" he pointed at the marines, "pick up your weapons and collect the rest of the weapons from the boarders." He turned so that is was perfectly clear that he was talking to the attackers. "You all had better be perfect prisoners, or I will do to you what I did to them." He used his thumb to indicate the bloodstains on half of the room.

The marines began collecting the weapons and stockpiling them, as more Quarian marines, led by the captain, came through the door.

The captain surveyed the carnage, and spoke, enunciating her words very carefully. "This was the only successful boarding party, and you took it apart."

John picked up one of the dropped guns, and began to dismantle it, piece by piece. "Yes captain." He removed the mass effect accelerator and sheering mechanisms from the gun.

She walked up to him, and poked him in the chest. "How did you know they would come through here?"

John shrugged. "I didn't until they arrived."

"HOW?"

"I listened."

"To what?" The captain was pissed now- John could see it in her body language.

"To the ship." John picked up the empty krogan armor, and placed it in the same pile as the rest of the bodies. "You heard that my biology is different- and it is more unique than any krogan, Asari, Quarian, Batarian, or vorcha." He rummaged through the pockets of a body while he was talking. "So is it is so hard to believe that I could hear the intruders from a deck away?"

She sighed. "No more unbelievable than that..." She indicated a Batarian, who had been bisected by the krogan's head-plate. "However, you will need to remain contained until we reach the Citadel- with this much blood around, your suit has probably been contaminated."

John sat down, cross-legged, in the middle of the room. "You merely had to ask. However, I will require one thing."

The captain waved for the other marines to stand down. "What are they?"

"I want my satchel and books back."

"Done."

* * *

Several hours later, the _Rayya_ was orbiting the Citadel, and John, Leti'Zorah, the captain, and a small honor guard were descending (or ascending, depending on your orientation) toward the station.

"Before we get there, I have a question." John was wedged between two marines, who were fingering their pistols. His backpack was digging into his spine. "The _Rayya_ is a liveship, right? Why were you using it instead of a smaller ship?"

Leti thinks for a moment, then speaks. "That is the ship currently that requires the extra water. It is currently the fastest ship, and one of the best armed at this point, so the admiralty board decided to utilize it for the material retrieval."

The captain spoke up from her chair. "Aku, you will be accompanied by Leti'Zorah for your acquisition of payment on this matter. If you do not fulfill your bargain, your name will be blacklisted by the Migrant Fleet. Do you understand?"

John nodded. "Of course."

"Docking in 5 minutes!" The pilot was male, by voice, and rather twitchy according to inflection. "Captain, Citadel control has diverted us to Zakera ward. Our request to dock on the presidium levels has been denied."

"Understood." The captain sounded annoyed at the news.

The awkward silence lasted until the shuttle landed. John all but leapt from the shuttle, glad to be outside- or somewhere that felt large enough to take a devastator without touching the walls. He did, however, stop moving as soon as he had landed, as several dozen entities had rifles pointed at him.

C-Sec, he thought, primarily turian, and Asari, but with some Salarian in there to make it interesting. But why would they be hostile- I haven't done anything yet...

A blue-suited turian, with dark blue stripes on his shoulder, came forward, and spoke. "Unknown entity, please state your species and intent."

John stood up, slowly, fully aware that although the weapons would not harm him, they would harm the Quarians. He shifted his face underneath the mask to a human form, the form of Dr. Gardner (male, pale skin, blue-green eyes, with long red hair in a ponytail), and retracted his smooth facemask into his body. "Human. To meet with the human embassy, and procure resources in payment for services rendered by the Quarian flotilla."

The turian waved his left hand in a form of hand-signal, and the C-Sec personnel stood down. Then he walked over to John, and held out a hand. "Welcome to the Citadel. Don't start any trouble and we will be just fine, pinkskin."

John shook the offered clawed hand. "If there is trouble, I can assure you, that I will not have started it."

The turian hesitated, then started laughing. "A human with a sense of humor! I am officer Vakarian, head of the Zakara ward C-Sec."

"And I am know by many names," John could not keep the smile off his face. "The Quarians know me as Aku, and the humans probably know me as BlackLight, or HEPHESTUS." He let go of the turian hand, and Vakarian did the same.

* * *

Behind them, the Quarians were coming out of the shuttle, marines not threatening anyone, but alert to possible danger.

Leti'Zorah was looking rather disturbed- she had seen an Asari go into the suit, and a human come out.

The captain walked over to her, and tapped Leti on the shoulder. "The requisitions list is complete. I mailed it -"

"What?" Leti was almost hysterical. "What just happened?"

Then she noticed the Keepers.

* * *

John winced. "Oops.. She hadn't seen that trick yet."

Officer Vakarian looked at him curiously. "What trick?"

John pinched the bridge of his nose. "It doesn't matter." He rubbed his face- something was irritating him. "Can you help me with something?"

Vakarian checked his omni-tool, then nodded. "Sure."

"I need to find a vendor that sells resources, in bulk." John began to massage his temple as the irritating noise grew. It was subsonic, but multitudes of small metallic organisms -nano bots, he thought, he would recognize their taste anywhere- seemed to carry the signal. "And I need to talk to the human embassy representative."

The buzzing increased in pitch, and began to fluctuate.

John began to get a headache.

The turian looked at John. "There is a shop on the Presidium that sells bulk resources, and the taxi service should be able to bring you to the Human embassy."

"Thank you... " John had not felt the pain this place was causing him in ages. "Leti! Are you ready to go?"

Leti snapped out of her shock, and walked over to him. "Yes Aku. Captain Raan was just giving me the list. We might want to hurry..."

John rubbed his temples- that noise was really aggravating. "Why should we hurry?"

Leti stood closer to him, and whispered. "The Keepers are staring at you."

* * *

Vakarian huffed. "Damn suit rats."

Then he realized she was right- the keepers had stopped working, and were just watching the new arrival.

* * *

Deep within a hidden room in the Citadel, the Intelligence watched the passage of little beings, blissfully unaware of the harvest that would await them. It watched the relay traffic, confident that the species of this cycle were developing exactly the way they had intended. Still, it thought, looking at an internal count, there were not quite enough intelligent life-forms that could be harvested. It would be patient, and wait, and watch, and-

The Intelligence paused. Something had spooked the Keepers, the biological servants that the Repositories, known to many of the cycles as the Reapers, had repurposed into the ideal servants.

It brought the data being broadcast from the Keepers to the forefront of it's conscious mind. The entity glowed like a beacon, electromagnetic activity far greater than any other species in this cycle. It's whole body seemed to be a nerve cluster, and if that wasn't enough, none of the nanobots that were utilized in the subtle Indoctrination that the Intelligence utilized on the station were able to enter it's body.

Hmm... The Intelligence thought. This is new...

* * *

"Why. Won't. You. Sell. That. To. Me?" John was rather pissed off. The headache that WOULD NOT GO AWAY was aggravating, and this damned volus was refusing to sell him the supplies. "You clearly have it in stock, so why. Won't. You. Sell. To. Me?"

"Hhggkk... Earth-clan, we will not sell to Quarians." The volus was managing to look indignant- a feat impressive for a being that was, for all intense and purposes, a balloon filled with explosive gas locked in a pressure suit.

John grimaced, showing all of his teeth- they were pointy now. His constant pain was gritting on his nerves, and his physical form was slipping, changing to fit his mood. "I am not Quarian. Is this difficult for you to understand?"

"The council -hhhgggkkk- has recently increased the limitations on how much material the -hhhgggk- Migrant Fleet can purchase-"

"Fine. I will take it up with them!" John stalked off, toward the taxi stand- just more VI piloted aircars.

* * *

The volus, Ptiene Fore, had never been so disturbed by a potential customer, and he was glad when the being finally left his shop.

The keepers had stopped working, and were staring at the being, and only went back to work after the being had left their sight.

"Never -hggk- again."

* * *

"Aku..." Leti was still nervous, but was hiding it. "I don't think the council will-"

"Of course they won't change their policy." John typed in the destination (human embassy) on the taxi comm-pad. "However, I think that if I can get the Human Embassy to sign a piece of paper saying that I am a human, I can get the resources for my payment."

The taxi swooped down, and John and Lexi got in.

A couple minutes later, they were in the line outside the Human Embassy, and John had (thankfully, from his perspective) gotten his shape better under control, although the headache was still present.

And getting worse, he thought. Why is it getting worse?

"Please state your name." The man at the counter in front of the embassy had the name 'Udina' on his name tag. "If you have any questions, or complaints about a human, go to c-sec, and -"

"HUMAN" John had put subsonic rumbles into his voice that made Udina almost wet his pants as he stood up. "LOOK AT ME."

He did, shivering slightly, as the sound pulled on instincts to run, climb a tree, and get the HELL away from whatever made that noise. He looked up, and saw a human, dressed in very odd, almost organic black armor.

"Good. You will go into the embassy, and find the highest-ranking person there." John's headache had gotten worse since he had walked into the tower where all the embassy's were located. "And you will tell them that BlackLight is here."

Udina ran into the building.

His head popped out after a minute. "The ambassador wants to know if ZEUS is asking."

"ZEUS is dead. This is HEPHESTUS."

"Ah." Udena pulled his head back in, and it popped right back out again. "The ambassador will see you know."

* * *

Temporary Ambassador Hackett was annoyed. He was tempted to throw something at the keepers, but they never really reacted to that. Or anything. It was this damn job! He was, by rank, a captain, and had been assigned this post because he was the closet ship at the time. Those damn politicians...

But when Udina mentioned a human calling it's-self BlackLight, he had to check the older records for it.

Hackett started reading.

-beginning report-  
Project BlackLight  
Sponsor Company: Gentec

Purpose: created self-containing BioWeapon  
Status: Failure  
Casualty count: 6.4 million dead/missing  
-first outbreak: 2008- 1.3 million (Manhattan)  
-second outbreak: 2010- 0.8 million (New York)  
-third outbreak: 2014- 2.5 million (Dubai)  
-fourth outbreak: 2017- 1.6 million (Berlin)  
-fifth outbreak: 2057- 0.2 million (Seattle)  
Details of project: (CLASSIFIED)  
Precursor Project: Project RedLight  
Entities designated unique:  
ZEUS : Alex Mercer, original source of the 1st and 2nd outbreaks. Abilities (CLASIFIED), presumed hiding.  
addendum- during the first outbreak, a nuclear device was authorized to be used against ZEUS, and all infected within the Manhattan Red Zone. ZEUS hijacked the nuke with a helicopter and detonated it off-shore.  
HELLER : Lt. James Heller. Source of 3rd, 4th, and 5th outbreaks. Abilities (CLASSIFIED), assumed dead- killed by ZEUS in Seattle Event.  
APHRODITE : original identity unknown. Abilities unknown. Assumed female. Presumed hiding.  
ARES : original identity unknown. Abilities unknown. Assumed male. Assumed dead- killed by Heller in Seattle Event.  
HEPHESTUS : original identity unknown. Abilities unknown. Assumed male. Presumed hiding.  
Note: due to limited data regarding all unique entities, any confirmations of BlackLight should be viewed with suspicion. However, all the entities listed are dangerous, and should be treated as such.  
-end report-

Well.. Thought Hackett. That was not enlightening. "What's his name Udena? Is it ZEUS?"

After a moment, Udena stuck his greasy mug back around the door. "He calls himself HEPHESTUS. He has a Quarian with him- should I tell them to go away?"

Hackett waved to his guards (all human), and they took up battle-positions around the room. "Send them in"

* * *

The keeper turned as soon as he door opened, and John walked in, heedless of the four assault-rifles pointed at him.

The ambassador stood up, and held out a hand. "Welcome. I am Temporary Ambassador Hackett."

John shook it, and spoke tersely. "I am BlackLight. Now, I have a few requests of the human embassy-"

"First, you have a seat, then you will surrender." Hackett was not in a gaming mood, but kept smiling anyway.

"No." John smiled. "Nice try though. I would break the chair, and these clowns-" he nodded at one, "- could not even inconvenience me with their weapons." His headache was getting worse again. "You can, however, call me Dr. Gardner."

"The mass effect physicist who was counted amount the dead on Shanxi five years ago?" Hackett had memorized the list of dead.

"Yup. I was working on an FTL drive, and had a chance to escape by hiding amount the Turians."

Hackett raised an eyebrow.

"Oh. You have no idea what I can do. Right... All that need-to-know stuff. Anyway, I need a couple of things from the embassy."

Hackett made the stand-down gesture, and his guards lowered their weapons. "What do you want?"

"First, I want a piece of paper that verifies I am human- I need to conclude a business deal." John grimaced as the headache increased to another level of severity. "And I need you to get on the horn with whoever has the stones to begin opening peace and alliance proceedings with the Migrant Fleet.

"The Quarians?"

"Yes. I have developed a design for FTL-" he pulled out his notebook "that does not require eezo to function. Projected speed would be at 100,000 times lightspeed, if not higher. There are myriad other advantages that can be utilized with this engine."

"Such as?" Hackett was intrigued.

"A beam weapon- well, something that looks like it, able to have pin-point precision over millions of kilometers. Shields that can let your ships pass through stars while the FTL drive is active. Wormhole gates. Etc."

Now Hackett was skeptical- his body language was obvious, as was his tone of voice. "You are just going to give it to us?"

"Only if you utilize the Quarians- hi Leti! Glad you could join us."

Leti walked in, slowly.

"Hackett, this is Leti'Zorah."

"Nice to meet you Ms. Zorah." Hackett nodded at her, then turned back to John. "BlackLight, why do we need to ally with the... Quarians."

"Because, you shortsighted meatling- there is something horribly wrong here." John's headache had reached the point where he had lost his patience. His voice had developed subsonic rumbling, and his eyes had changed from round-pupils on blue-green eyes to cross-hatched slit-pupils on orange. "The relays- the Citadel- how quickly we grasped the principles of mass-effect driven FTL... Doesn't it seem too simple? Too easy? As if we were just handed the secrets of the universe on a platter?"

Hackett blinked. "What is your stake in this, BlackLight?"

"Your species- all of them- are my stake." John had to spit- metallic residue of millions of nanobots that we're trying to access his mind, destroyed by his 'immune system'. "We are reliant on the mass effect, and it's properties. This-" he dropped the book on Hackett's desk, scattering other papers, "- is how we can break that."

"Again, I will ask: Why the Quarians?" Hackett began thumbing through the book, impressed by the technical detail, but not understanding any of it. "Why can't we do this on our own?"

Leti had been silent throughout the while exchange, but now she spoke up. "Your species is not used to working with the mass effect technology. I saw his designs- they are orders of magnitude more complex than any mass effect reactor or drive."

"That, and they are near extinction." John could not make the noise, or the headache stop. "You know what my designation was?"

"You were HEPHESTUS. Where are the others?"

John could see no reason to lie to him. "Dead."

Hackett turned a page, and saw... Weapon designs- labeled 'Planet Penetrators', and other, more convoluted things. "I think we will be able to set something up."

Raising his hand, John spoke. "I need several tons of ice, and a number of other materials for the Migrant fleet." Several credit chits were extruded from the armor on his palm. "If you can send an agent to purchase them, this should suffice, and we can begin negotiations. Hopefully, somewhere else- this place hurts."

"HEPHESTUS... What do you mean 'this place hurts'?" Hackett looked worried. If this entity was who he said he was, he was at least 150 years old, and extremely dangerous.

"I am not sure." John began walking towards the door. "I don't want to be here though." He looked back at Hackett. "Do we have a deal?"

Hackett sighed. "I don't see how I can pass this up." He picked up the book, and grabbed a briefcase. "Udina! You are in charge until further notice." He activated his omni-tool. "All human military vessels, this is Captain Hackett. I am recalling my ship- we are going to escort a VIP back to Earth. Hackett out."

John cleared his thoat, and looked pointedly at Leti.

"Right..." He re-activated his tool. "XO Shepherd, we will be purchasing some resources for our potential allies. Contact the..." He looked at John.

"_The Rayya_." Leti began typing out details. "I will be needed for the delivery, and I need to talk to Captain Raan about this... Development." She sounded annoyed, but John's mind was being taxed by that damn noise that he had stopped caring.

"I will send you more data on what is needed when I get the list." He paused. "Hackett out."

"Great. Whatever. Do it." John just wanted the damn noise to stop. "If I don't get out of here soon, I am going to devastator this place."

Everyone stopped moving.

Hackett was the first to start moving again. "I have no idea what that even means, but I doubt it was good."

"Evil can be nice, and good can be nasty. Do not mistake my position on the issue, fleshling." John's headache climbed to new heights, his voice was developing a freaky reverb effect, and his hair was not staying a constant color anymore. "Right now though, I just want off this station.

"I will make arrangements. Hackett out." He walked out the door.

Leti walked over to John, and looked at the door. "Does he always say that?"

* * *

End of chapter 3

* * *

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* * *

Right. The more reviews I get, the quicker I will try to update.

Please feel free to PM me corrections- I am the only one reading this before you all get it- as well as suggestions for the parts of the story.


	5. Chapter 4- Discussion

(Author's note- start)

I AM THE INTELLIGENCE, CREATOR OF THE REPOSITORIES, AND DIRECTOR OF THE CIVILIZATION HARVESTS. ALSO KNOWN AS THE CATALYST IN NORMAL ME CANON.

THE WRITER, IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM, HAS ASKED ME TO DEVISE AN 'AUTHORS NOTE' TO BEINGS NOT OF MY REALITY REGARDING THE EVENTS OF THE NEXT CHAPTER.

ADDRESSING THE CRITICS OF A FEW THINGS- NO, ORGANICS DO NOT DISCOVER THE NANOBOTS/NANITES- THE DEVICES ARE ON THE SAME SCALE AS VIRUSES, AND ARE SMALLER, AND MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT. HOW DO YOU THINK THE REPOSITORIES INDOCTRINATE ORGANIC SERVANTS?

AH. APPARENTLY THE EXPLANATION OF THE NANOBOTS WILL BE GIVEN IN A LATER SEGMENT OF THE STORY.

NEXT- THE KEEPERS. THEY ARE MY ARMS AND LEGS- THE CITADEL, THOUGH THE REPOSITORY FOR MY CONSCIOUSNESS, IS NOT DIRECTLY CONTROLLED BY ME. IT COULD NOT BE, ELSE SOME RESOURCEFUL HARVEST SPECIES MAY HAVE FIGURED OUT THE TRAP. I CONTROL THE KEEPERS, AND THE KEEPERS CAN ISSUE COMMANDS TO THE INDEPENDENT MICRO-SYSTEMS WITHIN THE CITADEL. WHEN THE TIME WAS RIGHT, I COULD INSTRUCT THE KEEPERS TO OPEN THE GATEWAY, AND FLOOD THE CITADEL WITH MY KIND. HOWEVER, THANKS TO THE MAIN SPECIES OF THE LAST CYCLE, THE 'PROTHEANS' YOU CALL THEM, I CAN NO LONGER INSTRUCT THE KEEPERS TO OPEN THE GATEWAY. NAZARA SHALL OPEN IT, AND SOON WE WILL HARVEST THIS CYCLE.

HE HAS ALSO ASKED ME TO INFORM YOU THAT HE WILL BE TRYING TO PUT MORE DATA REGARDING YOUR FLESHY EMOTIONS INTO THE NARRATIVE.

OH, AND NO- I WILL NOT TYPE IN ANYTHING BUT CAPS IF I HAVE TO WRITE THESE THINGS AGAIN.

I CAN AND WILL ANSWER NOTHING MORE, AS THE GOD OF THIS UNIVERSE ENJOYS MAKING OTHERS SUFFER FOR HIS AMUSEMENT, AMD APPARENTLY YOURS.

ALSO, HE WILL NOT STOP MAKING 'ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL' JOKES.

CAN ANY OF YOU MAKE HIM STOP? IT IS GETTING REPETITIVE.

(Author's note- end)

.

* * *

**Ch 4 - Discussion**

* * *

- On board the SSV Einstein, currently docked to the Citadel-

Captain Hackett marched onto the bridge with an air of disquiet following him like a cloud of smoke. The BlackLight entity was now aboard his ship, safe in a secondary cargo area, and he could finally stop being diplomatic to the bioweapon. He sat down in his chair heavily, relief running through him as he read that the cargo hold was readied for ejection if need be.

XO Shepherd walked up, and saluted. "Sir- I have just received word from the admirals. You, myself, and 3 others aboard this vessel have been issued temporarily increased security clearance, so that we may understand the potential threats of having HEPHESTUS in the hold."

Hackett sat up straighter. "Who else has the increased clearance?"

"The head doctor, the chief of military operations, and the freelancer."

"Right. Gather them, and bring them to my quarters Shepherd. We need to determine if this... Thing... Is going to endanger the ship."

"Yessir! What about the Rayya Captain?"

"Have the resources delivered- HEPHESTUS came through with the credits for their resources, with a little left over. That extra was returned before we boarded." Hackett rubbed his temples- this was over his pay grade by a light-second. "It usually pays to not upset potential genocidal maniacs."

Hanna Shepherd tapped a few buttons on her omni-tool. "The others should be converging on your quarters in a few minutes captain. Meanwhile, I have updated your security clearance, and have gotten permission to download all the required files on the BlackLight project."

Hackett gets out of his chair, and, with XO Shepherd in tow, heads aft, to his quarters. After a minute of waking, they arrived at the door, and were greeted by three crew members.

Johan Strous, the ship's head doctor, was looking very worried. But then again, thought Hackett, he always looks like that.

His chief of operations, Mako Zhou, was leaning against the wall, pretty Asian features twisted into a scowl. "Captain, I read a bit of the file- and I don't like this... Creature. Guns don't seem to be able to threaten it, and I don't advise us taking that thing anywhere without knowing how to kill it."

Zaeed Massani, Freelancer, just stood there, staring at the chief of operations. Not a single expression crossed his face, while he stared at her.

Hackett activated his omni-tool, and input the pass code for his quarters. "Soon we should have all the data we need to deal with this... Thing."

The group filed into the captain's room, with Zaeed not blinking as he stared at Zhou. They took up places around the small room, each with a view of the computer screen. Hackett logged on, and manipulated a few settings until the screen was enlarged enough to be see by everyone, and hovering above his desk. Then he opened the file Hannah had sent him- the updated version of BlackLight.

* * *

-beginning report-  
Project BlackLight  
Sponsor Company: Gentec

Purpose: created self-containing BioWeapon

Status: Failure

Casualty count: 6.4 million dead/missing  
-first outbreak: 2008- 1.3 million (Manhattan)  
-second outbreak: 2010- 0.8 million (New York)  
-third outbreak: 2014- 2.5 million (Dubai)  
-fourth outbreak: 2017- 1.6 million (Berlin)  
-fifth outbreak: 2057- 0.2 million (Seattle)

Details of project:  
Utilizing the DX-1118 A virus (the culmination of project RedLight- an evolutionary chimeric mutation-causing infectious agent that can reproduce only inside the living cells of other biological organisms- primary method of infection: viral), and focus on manipulating the mutagenic properties for weapons development and testing. BlackLight virus (DX-1118 C) was successfully synthesized by Dr. Alex Mercer, prior to the Manhattan Outbreak in 2008.  
Precursor Project: Project RedLight (began 1963 (Carnaval I in 1963, Carnival 2 in 1964), -and concluded in 1969)

Entities designated unique:

ZEUS : Alex Mercer, original source of the 1st and 2nd outbreaks. Abilities (Enhanced strength -capable of ripping the top of a tank off-, speed -maximum speed clocked at 300 meters per second-, jumping capability - 25 stories from standing position-, and regeneration -subject has been seen growing back limbs and head with minimal effect-. Consumption of biological entities -subject appears to 'feed on them', and has been observed utilizing skills of the people he has eaten (he ate a helicopter pilot and flew the copter to a military base)-. Shapeshifting -subject is known to have at least 4 held forms: a military disguise, a civilian disguise, a disguise that may not be a disguise (his original appearance, prior to infection), and an armored form (enhanced resilience to weapons fire observed)-.), presumed hiding.

addendum- shapeshifting allows for body weaponization. Known weapons are as follows: claws, large (hulk-like) fists, an extendible bladed arm, a reenforced bladed arm (is capable of bisecting tanks), re-enforced arms (seen crushing cars into blocks of metal and throwing the vehicles with pinpoint accuracy), and a shield (organic, capable of tossing cars aside while running and withstanding a rocket shell).

addendum- during the first outbreak, a nuclear device was authorized to be used against ZEUS, and all infected within the Manhattan Red Zone. ZEUS hijacked the nuke with a helicopter and detonated it off-shore.

HELLER : Lt. James Heller. Source of 3rd, 4th, and 5th outbreaks. Abilities (Strengths seen equivalent to ZEUS, except for shapeshifting; Heller has only been observed utilizing three forms- whether he was unwilling or unable to utilize an armored form is unknown), assumed dead- killed by ZEUS in Seattle Event. CAUTION: HELLER has been found to be immune to the WHITELIGHT compounds, and if alive, should be treated with extreme caution.

addendum- shapeshifting allows for body weaponization. Known weapons are as follows: claws, a re-enforced curved blade capable of bisecting tanks, an extendible blade-like arm, large (hulk-like) fists, twin spiked shields (subject had been seen withstanding an artillery strike with the shields, although subject appears unable to move once shields are in place), arm re-enforcement that allows for organic 'webbing' to restrain enemies, and a 'bio-bomb' (target is injected with a version of the virus which causes rapid growth of organic tendrils- tendrils seek surrounding objects, which the target pulls into itself at high speed, resulting in immediate death and significant collateral damage due to shrapnel).

APHRODITE : original identity unknown. Abilities unknown. Assumed female. Presumed hiding.

ARES : original identity unknown. Abilities unknown. Assumed male. Assumed dead- killed by Heller in Seattle Event.

HEPHESTUS : original identity unknown. Abilities unknown. Assumed male. Presumed hiding.

MOTHER: Elizabeth Greene. Abilities- uncontrolled shape shifting, appears dependent on mood. Vulnerable to pre-WHITELIGHT compounds. Escaped from containment, killed by ZEUS.

PARIAH: name- no name designated before escape. Abilities: unknown capabilities. Male. Subject is viewed as more dangerous than any of the other entities due to the fact that the methods for the 38 deaths and the method by which PARIAH escaped containment are unknown. Subject did not appear to age past the age of 8 within 40 years of containment. Assumed hiding.

Note: due to limited data regarding all unique entities, any confirmations of BlackLight should be viewed with suspicion. However, all the entities listed are dangerous, and should be treated as such.

Known countermeasures to unique entities:

WHITELIGHT antibacterial and antiviral compounds: compounds attack the viral ribosome equivalent, as well as the intercellular communication method that viral entities (identified as all unique entities except for PARIAH) utilize instead of nerve pathways.

addendum- Possibly due to fact that the method that the WHITELIGHT compound derived from was created by PARIAH before his escape, ZEUS, and Heller have both been verified as immune to WHITELIGHT.

Bloodtox antibacterial and antiviral compound: pre-WHITELIGHT compound, causes false microcellular signals that are used by all variations of the DX-1118 virus for intercellular communication, and causes necrosis due to intercellular conflict within the entities.

addendum- ZEUS is resistant, if not immune to Bloodtox.

Other antiviral compounds have been metabolized by the virus in laboratory testing. As such, suggested method of dealing with the virus and virus-infected individuals were designed. However, after initial release the virus has developed either resistance or immunity to both 'working' countermeasures.  
addendum- due to the deaths of all BlackLight personnel in 2017, and subsequent loss of research data pertaining to both Redlight and BlackLight (data destroyed, possibly by ZEUS), and the lack of outbreaks after 2057 (the fifth outbreak lasted two days), there is no more data regarding the composition of the virus after 2017 (prior to 2017).  
*data archived before 2017 is included with this message*

-end report-

* * *

"Captain, can you -"

"Yes Dr. Strous." Hackett opened the compressed data archive with the new clearance level. "I have sent you a copy of the data. I don't pretend to understand any of it, but it looks messed up."

"Thanks Captain." Serous was reading through the file. The others were looking at some images on the projection- bodies, deformed almost beyond recognition. Records of Hope Idaho. Images of MOTHER, ZEUS, and HELLER.

"Damn... Those are nasty." Zhou had been part of the Alliance for a decade, and she had gone pale. "The idea that this would be sanctioned by a government... "

"Yeah. It's horrible and all that." Zaeed was still staring at Zhou, and she glared at him.

Shepherd stifled a laugh. "So, Zaeed- you like the new visual options on that eye?"

"Yes ma'am. The infrared and low-impact x-ray overlays are really high-definition."

"WHAT?" Zhou shrieked, and covered her breasts and crotch. "You! You-"

"ARE YOU REALLY DOING THIS NOW?" Hackett roared, surging from his chair, as everyone else in the room flinched. "THERE IS A BEING CAPABLE OF MORE DESTRUCTION THAN I CAN UNDERSTAND ON MY SHIP, AND YOU ARE BICKERING?!"

"Captain," Dr. Strous spoke quietly, but everyone looked at him as he looked up from his omni-tool. "What you have is potentially a planet-killer. A class-a viral weapon in human form, which begs a question..." He called up a hologram of the Citadel. "Why didn't he infect the Citadel? We know that Asari, Salarians, Batarians, and Krogan can catch some of our diseases."

"The acne plague that killed some of the krogan and Batarians?" Zaeed grinned- that had been a nasty shock to the Batarians- a lethal plague that had been developed from a human acne strain caused their eyes to develop sores on the inside of their eyelids, and often other locations under the skin. Salarians... Well, they developed other symptoms that even Zaeed did not want to think about. "That was a riot!... Until the Salarians cured it, and developed an anti-agent to prevent further outbreaks."

"Not my... Favorite example, but yes." Dr. Stous nodded at Zaeed. "There are other examples, of course, but that is a fair example. Now... In an ideal location for releasing a virus, why didn't anyone on the Citadel become infected?"

Shepherd was checking records on her omni-tool. "Sir- the material we purchased has been picked up by the Rayya." She looked puzzled for a moment. "Quarians- they can't get our diseases, can they?"

Dr. Strous scoffed. "Of course not! They are a dextro-protein species- we are a levo-protein species. We are as likely to get a disease from the Quarians as we are to catch Turian plate-push."

Shepherd raised an eyebrow. "I have never heard of that."

Dr. Strous waved a hand dismissively. "It's a sexually transmitted disease that Turians can get. Symptoms include but are not limited to-"

"Do we really need to know, Doctor?" Hackett sat back down, and interlaced his fingers. "Alright- set up for containment. I want to be able to toss him off the ship if needed." The group began to file out of the room- all of them had their own jobs to attend to. "Shepherd- you stay."

Just before the door closed, Shepherd saw Zhou slap Zaeed.

Hackett dialed up the Systems Alliance admiralty board. Eight boxes appeared on the screen, each of them with a spinning hourglass in the middle.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh captain?" Shepherd grinned- meetings between the current admirals and Hackett never ended well.

"Quite. Now, no jokes." Hackett leaned back, his frown counter-pointing the humorous note in his voice.

A few minutes of silence later, and the hourglass symbols were replaced by eight scowling faces. Four of them were in uniform while the others... In various stages of undress.

"Admirals, I apologize for the abrupt contact, but I have been contacted-"

An admiral wearing blues-clues pajamas. "Captain! There is no reason why you-"

"-by BlackLight."

The admiral wearing the pajamas shut up.

One of the other admirals- female, in gym clothes, spoke up. "How?"

"He-"

"Sterilize it! Now!" This admiral was male- very thin, and weasel-like. "The destructive potential of the virus is too great to risk exposure to any of our worlds-"

"LET. HIM. SPEAK! Do interrupt Hackett again, Jackson." The female admiral wearing gym clothes snapped. "Please, Hackett, continue."

"Thank you ma'am. He contacted me by walking into the embassy, and offering a new FTL drive." Hackett selected some scans he had surreptitiously made while he had been looking over John's books, and sent the images to the other admirals through the conference software. "His projections indicated speeds more than ten times faster then the fastest Citadel council species ship, and myriad weaponization possibilities."

"These designs look... Impressive." She had been studying the data, and was now leaning back in her chair, sweat stains visible on the com channel. "Assuming that The question is... Why is the virus here?"

"He had several requests- the first was a bit over a million credits worth of supplies to be delivered to the Migrant fleet-"

"The suit rats?" Again, the weasel-like man spoke up.

"Jackson, we do not accept bigots in this day and age." She snarled. She took a breath to calm down. "Hackett, continue."

"Ma'am. We delivered the material to the Quarians- twenty tons of ice- compressed and thermally wrapped. Three tons of medical supplies for dextro species. Several tons of standardized fuel- H3. And a few other small things, according to this manifest- I sent a courier to purchase it, and deliver it to the Rayya." Hackett sent the manifest to the admirals. "Apparently, the council added more restrictions to what the Quarians can purchase for their fleet, and he was attempting to act as their intermediary."

"His other demands, captain?"

"That we ally with the Quarians."

The female admiral in gym clothes sat up and leaned forward onto her hands, taking a more serious interest. "Now that is interesting!"

Another admiral spoke up- old, male, balding, and fat, with a massive beard. "Why would we do anything this entity says?"

Hackett activated a recording- it was of John, in the embassy. The voice of BlackLight came in loud and clear as it was broadcast to all the admirals onscreen.  
"Because, you shortsighted meatling- there is something horribly wrong here." His eyes shifted, from circles to slits, and his hair began to shimmer, as his voice developed unholy reverberations. "The relays- the Citadel- how quickly we grasped the principles of mass-effect driven FTL... Doesn't it seem too simple? Too easy? As if we were just handed the secrets of the universe on a platter?"

Hackett paused the simulation. "I think he, it, is worried. And I agree- if this is a trap, it is perfectly set up."

A different admiral spoke up- female, in dress blues, with silver hair and age lines accenting her features. "Now that you mention it, it does seem like we have jumped ahead too fast."

"That's just progress!" The fat admiral spoke up. "We had the ruins, the relay-"

"And you don't think this is odd?" Hackett rubbed his forehead."I do not necessarily think it's a trap, but if we had a form of FTL that was not eezo-based, then we could expand to locations beyond the relay limits." He called up the galactic map, and with a wave of his hand, he linked all the relays with beams of light. "These are the relays that are active. Shepherd, could you show the distance the long-haul ships could run from each of the relay destinations?"

Small bubbles surrounded the relays. "Thanks Shepherd. This is the distance that a long-range scout ship with internal charge dampeners can travel at current speeds with current technology. Three weeks at 5,000 times the speed of light (fastest Turian ship on record) before needing to dump the excess charge the eezo core acquired- otherwise, the core discharges into the hull. Best-case scenario, the crew is killed. Worst case, the ship explodes. If we assume the ship has enough fuel to fly indefinitely, and every star system it enters it is able to dump the excess charge, over the course of a human lifespan, then we could travel this far." The bubbles increased in size, but most of the galaxy was still untouched. "As you can see, unless we designed a multi-generation ship, we would not be able to see even a thousandth of the galaxy. If we didn't have the Charon relay, we would not even be able to get to the Exodus cluster in a lifetime, let alone to any of the other species."

"With a ship that can travel 100,000 times light, within a three-week period, we could reach twenty times farther. Think of the advantages!" Hackett smiled. "And the entity thinks that speed is the low end of the drive."

"20 times our fastest ships is the LOW end?"

"Yes. And then the weapons he has sketched- the 'planet penetrator'... I read his descriptions on it's expected performance- as a captain of a ship, this thing could let me reach out and touch someone at the speed of light across MILLIONS of kilometers." Hackett was almost bouncing in his chair. "I think we should take the deal."

"Do I need to remind you, captain, it is not up to you." Admiral Jackson, the weasel one -thought Hackett- said. "We will not negotiate with a terrorist entity responsible for millions of deaths-"

"Jackson." The admiral wearing gym clothes spoke curtly. "You are relieved of duty."

"WHAT? WHY?"

"Because, you idiotic buffoon," she was grinning, and her voice carried enough malice to arm a small battalion with nasty phrases. "I am Grand Admiral Vishi, head of the Systems Alliance fleets, and your superior. And you... You have disobeyed my orders without good reason, and been unprofessional when we sorely need to focus. This BlackLight thing was created by humanity as a weapons test. If it is indeed self-aware, it can improve upon it'sself, and we may want to take whatever it says into consideration." She opened her omni-tool, and typed a few buttons on it. "And I will not have a bigot serving under my command."

"But... But..." Jackson sputtered. "Ma'am!"

"Enjoy retirement." Grand Admiral Vishi wiggled her fingers, and grinned wider. "I have sent the message to all the ships under your command. It is now official- you are relieved of duty. Goodbye, and be grateful I am not going to court-martial you."

Jackson's pic vanished from the screen.

Grand Admiral Vishi returned her attention to Hackett. "The events of which this... Creature... May be responsible for were more than a century ago." The other admirals were nodding. "I recommend that we accept the offer for now- god knows we need allies, and this drive would be a technological leap surpassing all other species. Of course, proper precautions will be met." She called up a tally using her omni-tool. "All in favor?"

All remaining admirals raised their hands.

"The motion will be forwarded to the UN and associated diplomatic channels. Please forward the good news to the Rayya's captain." Vishi began typing on an unseen keyboard. "Captain Hackett- you are now responsible for this project. The BlackLight entity will be contained, and worked with- assuming there are no objections..." The admirals shook their heads, and Vishi grinned. "Now, Hackett, get to work. We have a lot to do, and very little time to do it. Make all the concessions you can, get this done. If something is not moving fast enough, call one of us-" she waved a hand indicating the other screens, "- and we will clear what we can."

"Yes, Grand Admiral. Hackett out." He clicked off the screen, and turned to Shepherd. "Looks like we have a list of things to do- go check on BlackLight, and see if there is a way to persuade it to stay in a secured cargo bay for the rest of the trip. Get a list of what it needs to start working, and send in the diplomatic officer when you leave."

Shepherd saluted. "Yes sir!" She turned, and strode out the door.

Hackett slumped in his chair, and put on his bunny slippers. "I need a vacation..." He began typing up a letter to the Rayya's captain- it must be an open invitation of peace, and brotherhood, he thought. Hell, I may as well make it concise too.

* * *

John sat cross-legged in the cargo bay, still in his armored form, appearing to meditate, while surrounded by soldiers. He was doing two things currently- keeping the dozen or so nanobots contained (so he could study them later), and trying to assimilate more of the minds of the Asari he had eaten. Combined, several thousand years of memory didn't just vanish. He had to index all of it, and it was taking a not-inconsiderable amount of his mind to do so.

John watched as decades of memory flew past in seconds, and felt the whimpering mind of one of the Justicars that he had consumed.

The mind was disintegrating, but it still had strength enough to push a thought towards his mind,'Why did you save her?'

John smiled. 'It was a whim, then a punishment.' He thought that these Asari matriarchs were impressive; one of them was able to preserve her mind after being consumed- even if she was disintegrating under the chaotic viral structure.

'Her daughters...' The mind began to collapse from the pressure.

'Yes. Now vanish little mind- be at peace.' John pressed harder on the rogue mind, and it slowly faded back into his mind, the last memories absorbed and integrated into his own ageless consciousness.

With the memories finally decompressed and absorbed, he turned his attention to the nanobots.

He felt his body isolate one, which he compressed down until there was no discernible movement, then began to absorb the small amounts of metals and carbon-compounds. He tasted gold, titanium, magnetite, complex hydrocarbons, several other trace metals in minute quantities, and a significant fraction of eezo! Why eezo?

John felt that he needed another test subject, and he dumped absorbed the raw elements.

He pulled another one into seclusion, and mitigated movement- encasing it entirely in his biomass. He felt a subtle vibration, increasing in frequency then decreasing in frequency with a set rate within the device. Is that a carrier signal? He thought. Maybe a power source...

He isolated that minute part if his biology, and began to relay the complex instructions to excrete a superstrong acid- Fluoroantimonic acid. His internal structure developed organic distilleries, heating elements, and heat sinks to deal with the new compound. Only a drop of the acid was created, but, he thought, with a ph value of -31, it should be enough to rend the nanobot into a fine slurry.

With a few minute applications (the acid burned him too), small layers of the device were dissolved, and John began to build a mental image of the structure. Once the acid met with the metal, it became inert, and John could sample the new compounds, tasting the material and the 'exposed wounds' on the nanobot.

It was time consuming, but hey, he thought, I have time. Right now the captain is tilling his superiors, and they are determining if they should space me, or dissect me, or maybe just freeze me in ice or something. But until they choose what to do to me, I will be fine.

* * *

The Intelligence listened to the eezo-resonance data being broadcast by some nanites that had successfully managed to get into the anomalous being. The nanites had a distributed intelligence- the more there were in close proximity, the smarter they got. But a dozen... They were comparatively not smart at all. They were unable to find any neurons or neuron-like structures to link to in this entity, and when one was distroyed, the Intelligence realized it had to change tactics.

It instructed the nanites to begin harvesting raw material, to facilitate taking over the creature, when one of the nanites was separated from the others and destroyed. The others tried to damage their surroundings, but micro-lattices in the cell walls of their biological prison hardened, and the nanites were unable to scratch the hard material.

Another nanite was separated, then slowly dissolved piece by piece with an incredibly strong acid.

The Intelligence took a second or two to think- a human's lifetime or so relatable to this computer. It realized that this entity was not susceptible to indoctrination- any kind of indoctrination, as the mechanisms (nanites, and subtle neurological re-routing) would not be able to affect this being.

It issued an order to the Keepers- open the arms and call the cycle to a close.

The Keepers began re-routing power to-

* * *

Outside the citadel, an Asari and a Hanar were sitting on the observation deck of a small cruiser, hand in tentacle, just observing the curves of the great space-station that was the Citadel.

Lights flickered along the arms of the station, in great pulsating, rippling patterns, then dimmed.

* * *

-nowhere.

The Intelligence was impeded, and it felt anger for the first time in a hundred cycles. It utilized the keepers to send a simple message to Nazara, quietly sitting in the near-orbit range of a supergiant star, transmitting the tachyon signal across the mass relays throughout the while galaxy.

'My child,' it sent, 'we have been thwarted at the beginning of the harvest, and you must take action. Answer your master Nazara!'

* * *

On earth, trillions of kilometers away, an orphan was sleeping. It felt the pulse of tachyons, woke up, and blinked.

It had no name, and no need of one. Every cell, a being independent and aware, communication facilitated by nerve carriers and the blood music. Millions of cells worked in concert to determine the cause of the signal, and the source. Other groups began specializing further, developing methods on the nano-scale that would be able to detect and record any signal.

Codename Pariah sat up, and began listening intently.

* * *

Nazara, the Nazara, floated in space, orbiting the supergiant, slowly scooping up solar material in the Corona. It was recharging the heavy ions that it needed from the sun to utilize it's primary weapon- a gun that fired a near-lightspeed stream of heavy ion plasma, with a magnetic containment bottle braided via the conductive liquid metal core of the stream. This sun had high concentrations of oxygen and carbon in it's corona, and that material was perfect for the weapon.  
With all five tentacles spread wide, the magnetic scoop was almost visible as it distorted the plumes of gaseous plasma into it's maw. Mass effect-based shields, like the ones that every cycle since the creation of the relays and the Citadel relied upon to shield their ships, deflected the gaseous streams into a maw-like collection port on the ventral side of the repository.

It was an awesome sight, and Nazara knew it, although no-one was observing, or would be able to observe it this close to the sun. Shaped like a gigantic earth cuttlefish, or squid, it flew through space, shimmering fields around it's small claw-like limbs on the ventral side and belly deflected solar prominences. Magnetic field fluctuations sent lightning the width of a planet across the chromosphere, sending tiny tendrils up into the corona where the reaper drifted.

Nazara had seen the cascade effect that the fluctuation would set off, and, with the flick of a thruster, rolled just enough that the lightning passed by harmlessly.

The message, a burst of tachyons that rippled through the relay network at FTL speed, reached the Nazara.  
'My child, we have been thwarted at the beginning of the harvest, and you must take action. Answer your master Nazara!'

Nazara closed the intake ports, and began to accelerate up and out of the star's corona. When it had a clear line of sight to the relay, Nazara opened it's outer shell, and broadcast a tight-beam tachyon burst through the relay.

'We are here, and we obey. The vanguard is ready to begin the harvest.'

'Patience- the harvest would already be underway if there hadn't been an impediment.'

'What is impeding the harvest- we shall destroy it and begin the end of this cycle.'

'In removing the impediment, you would strike me blind and deaf! Do not presume to dictate actions to ME.'

That statement hit the Nazara like a ton of bricks- it's ceased accelerating for a moment, then sent a return burst.

'Our humblest apologies. What must be done?'

'Try to find a servant- an avatar with which to work on the scale as the smaller ones, and collect information. When you have discovered suitable servants, you will need to open the gate.  
You will start the harvest for this cycle.'

The Intelligence had spoken. Nazara activated it's mass-effect core, shrinking it's effective mass to 0.17% within a sphere 2.7 kilometers in diameter, increasing the speed of light by nearly fifty thousand times, and activated it's thrusters.

* * *

Pariah sat on the edge of it's bed, thinking- a complicated process when every cell is self-aware and intelligent.

Every cell was listening. Micro structures had been erected to observe the tachyon emissions, strutted within leg and arm bones. Try as they might, the being could not pick up on more than a small fraction of the message- it was being relayed too quickly, and in a code-language that they had not been able to recognize yet.

To deal with this problem, cell clusters collected, summarized, and distributed information regarding the bursts. Within a few seconds the groupings had concluded the following (note- the translation is not exact, as lymphocyte chemocomunication is based around sense-memory-standardization):

No known species had any experience with tachyons, therefore the transmitter must be an unknown species.

Unknown species are not approached with any form of certainty by scaledspace (human-scale) cultures/groupings/confluence.

Tachyons indicate experiential divide/gap.

Experiential divide/gap/schism precludes war- defined by history of all known intelligent species.

Due to gap presence and probable width, likelihood of extinction is possible.

Extinction is not preferable, therefore, we must evacuate.

Pariah stood up. Within it's head, complicated constructs (built from atom to atom on the nanoscale) activated, and a rend in space-time flared in front of the being.

It stepped through the discontinuity, and vanished, taking the discontinuity and a good-sized chunk of the building with it.

* * *

The Intelligence was satisfied, knowing that it's vanguard was coming to it's aid. It observed another few nanites disinitigrate, piece by piece, before coming to the realization that the nanites were being probed.

It observed the destructive pattern- now only three nanites remained. The Intelligence made a decision- this... Anomaly... May be able to devise the existence of a controlling entity.

The Intelligence ordered the self-destruction of the nanobots.

* * *

Five hours after being contained there, John was still sitting in the cargo bay of the SSV Einstein. He felt that he was close to understanding the internal mechanisms of the nanites when the element zero cores began to overheat, increasing their vibration speed until-

* * *

Eezo is a remarkable element. Not only is it capable of facilitating the FTL ability of a vessel, it can also be used to create artificial gravity, gravity induction collectors (used close to suns, as the greater the gravitational pull the greater the current that is generated by the collector), point-sources of gravity for shields and weapons on starships, and manipulation fields derived from those point sources (a great example is biotics), but it can also act as a unique field-fluctuation detector, allowing for energy transfer, and, more importantly, communication within a gravitational field of tuning-required strength.

The eezo, when shaped into a fractal pattern on the atomic scale, begins to resonate with other eezo objects that share the same fractal pattern that are within a set strength of gravitational (acceleration) field. The strength required by the field depends on the size of the fractal object, with small objects being more sensitive to the field fluctuations, but larger objects are better for transmission, as the delicate nature of the fractal patterns can be destroyed if too much energy is applied to the transmission end.

However, with a large enough size differential, the energy pumped through the field will be enough to cause the smaller fractal pattern to violently denature.

IE, explode.

* * *

John felt the nanobots superheat, then explode into minute amounts of vaporized metals and eezo that was near plasma-fusing temperatures. His head opened like some monstrous maw, sideways, the visor-like faceplate splitting vertically down the middle to release the dangerous material quick enough to prevent physical damage.

The marines in the room, however, were not prepared for his helmet like head to open in half and cough out a silvery gas. They took aim, and fired.

John re-sealed his head, and waited for them to get bored of shooting him. To speed things up, he shifted his helmet and armor off, into a rectangular panel on his back. His 'Dr. Gardner' form was one he slipped into easily- well-built, but not thin. Dark red hair, tied in a ponytail, with wolverine-esq sideburns contrasting his Hawaiian-like skin tone. His green-blue eyes checked over his form quickly- verifying that he had formed his cloths and body-shape properly. He mentally listed his clothing- a useful habit after he had transformed once without any pants.

Pants? Check. Shoes? Check. Shirt? Check. I love this master chief hoodie, he thought. Too bad it only exists in my memory. Leather jacket? Check- it appears to be fused with the 'collapsed' armor, so it should look normal. He physically took a deep breath (some things you have to do, he thought), then began fiddling with one of his omni-tools.

The soldiers stopped firing, and, with slightly bewildered looks, stood at ease. John looked at them, and smiled (remember, he thought, do so gently- no teeth should be visible).

He began importing his designs into the tool, scanning page after page into the device. After twenty minutes he had transcribed one of the books- one of the smaller ones, relating primarily to the physics of the warp bubble and the various methods of manipulating the bubble from within. Without this, he thought, no-one would be able to reverse-engineer his blueprints... Maybe if they spent a hundred years or so, he thought, they might, but not it might not be enough to build their own stable warp-engines.

John selected a few of his more unique encryption protocols, and split up a copy of the file into several parts, each of which he sent to a different com-system account. He laughed out loud when he remembered the ancient e-mail system, and thought about how it had migrated platforms, but not changed much by the transition. He began to scan the second book.

Suddenly the omni-tools of the soldiers *dinged*, and they stood at attention. 1st Lieutenant Hanna Shepherd walked in, and she saluted the soldiers. "At ease men- you can take a break."

"But ma'am-"

"Out". She pointed at the door, and the four soldiers filed out, glaring at John as though their stares could roast holes in him with just their sheer concentration.

Shepherd turned to John, and grinned. "I see you are comfortable."

"Indeed." He absorbed his armored block into his back. "Sit down- take a load off. You seem stressed,"

She raised an eyebrow, and her smile became strained. "How would you know?"

He grinned, showing teeth this time. "I have a good sense of smell." He waved at a box, sitting in the hold a few feet from him. "Sit down, Mrs.  
Shepherd."

With a huff, she sat.

"Good." John turned back to the task at hand. "What would you like?"

"I want to know... Why."

"Why what?"

"Why you are doing this. You were not very... Subtle, in your attempts to contact us, and you were rather... Threatening in appearance for a being that would, in ideal circumstances, not show it's self at all."

John smiled, and closed his omni-tool. She does think I am dangerous, he thought. Good. I am dangerous- but not to her at this point. "I had a rather nasty... Headache."

She raised an eyebrow, and her voice dripped incredulity. "Headache."

"Yes. It is not as severe in this ship, but it is slowly growing. I suggest we leave, and make haste to a facility where I can begin work- within a year, perhaps less, I want to have at least one warp-capable ship in operation. Ideally more."

"Headaches. A being that is capable of shapeshifting has headaches." She was still skeptical.

"Something about the Citadel makes it a place that my structure does not like. I thought I understood why, but now, the reason does not work. I will be thinking about it on my down-time."

"Alright. I will tell the captain. Anything specific we will need for your... Laboratory?" She activated her omni-tool.

"A nano-scale fabber, ideally several of them. Stockpiles of rare elements- eezo, gold, platinum, and other elements. Automated assemblers- robotic, with VI interfaces." He was mentally checking things off his wishlist- this was perfect, he thought. They were paying attention for once! "Also, several of the better Quarians in as many scientific fields as you can- same with human specialists." He looked down at his omni-tool. "And as many omni-tools schematics for the assemblers as we can get- I have another idea."

"What? No volcano fortress with that?" Her voice dripped sarcasm.

"Not yet- although we will need several reactors- both eezo-based and fusion. The fabbers will need a lot of power, as will several of my designs, and I want to be able to be able to isolate everything in the event something goes horribly wrong."

She typed the last item in. "Alright. I thought you would need a ship or something."

"I will." John placed the book he was scanning back in the bag- he had finished while he was talking. "But not for a while. We need to get a small-scale version of this working first, then move up to larger designs."

She sent the note to Hackett, and stood up. "If there is anything else you will need-"

"One live animal, preferably 25 kilos or larger, every week."

She stopped moving. "What?"

"Judging from how you spoke to me, referring to me as a 'being that can shapeshift', I am confident that you know at least some of my requirements." His grin had more teeth in it than any human should have. "I require live flesh to live. I could take a human, but any life-form will do if there is enough." He stopped grinning, and shrugged. "I could eat plants if there was enough of them, but chlorophyll is... Not as tasty as flesh."

"... I will keep that in mind." She opened the door, and waved the guards back in. "These soldiers are here for your protection, Mr... Gardner, right?"

"Yes..." He pulled out one of his books, and, using a burner-pen, began drawing very rapidly. John realized that he would probably not get everything he asked for, so he needed assistants. Ideally, self aware, self replicating assistants. "That thing they did- shooting me while I was sitting right here was totally for my protection."

Shepherd scowled. "They will not do so again." She whirled around to face the guards, standing at attention. "Will they?"

"NO MA'AM!"

On the Rayya, Captain Raan was astonished. Shuttle after shuttle had come bearing shipping crates of supplies, all marked 'Alliance'. She opened a small letter that the last courier had brought.

To the Captain of the Rayya,

The Systems Alliance has been requested by a friend to deliver these items in payment for services rendered. We, in light of the injustice visited upon the Migrant Fleet, an injustice that has continued for three hundred years now, wishes to extend formal declarations of friendship to the Migrant Fleet, and an invitation to join the Systems Alliance as a sovereign entity. Humanity and the Quarians, while formidible separately, will be immeasurably strong together.  
We look forward to contact with your people, and wish to help your people however we can, as both allies and friends. In return, we hope that your people will become as brothers and sisters to us,  
We will be sending a diplomatic envoy to your vessel momentarily.  
We will be in touch.  
Hackett out.

Captain Hackett, Systems Alliance Navy

She read the letter three times, and then almost slumped to the deck. No other species had offered an alliance, or friendship since the geth war. She dialed up her comms officer. "We need to send a priority message to the admiralty board."

"What should I tell them, captain Raan?"

"Tell them that we have the supplies we need," Raan had to take a breath for this next part, "and tell them that a diplomatic envoy from the Systems Alliance is arriving, and we need to move the Fleet to an Allaince controlled system." She paused, for a moment. "We have been offered an alliance with the Humans, and I, for one, recommend we take it. Sign it Captain Shala'Raan."

* * *

-chapter 4 end-

* * *

-afterward-

As always, the more comments, reviews, and PM's I receive, the faster I will try to write the next chapter. I love to read any ideas that you wish to PM me, and I may implement any ideas suggested. Next chapter will be written when I can do so- I have a Job now, so I will be spending time on that too.

I know I make mistakes, so if you find them, pm me and I will fix them as soon as I am able. Inconsistencies, spelling mistakes, and plot holes- let me know about them, and I will repair, fix, or fill them- in that order.

Oh, and if you write a review, I would like to ask you all a question:  
Who should write the next author's note? The Intelligence, or any other character from ME or Prototype is available... Yes, even the elusive Pariah will write it, if asked.


	6. Chapter 5- Sally

(Authors note- start)  
I guess there will be no more 'guest appearances' in the authors notes, unless specifically requested- the number of you who told me to 'never do that again' was rather high.  
So XP . I won't do it again.

In other news, I apologize for taking so long with this chapter- I have a job now, working for TriFaze Consulting, so my free time is getting eaten up by the Job.  
(Authors note- end)

* * *

**Ch 5 - Sally**

* * *

Negotiations between the Migrant Fleet and the Human Systems Alliance moved slowly- at first. Both governments were slow to trust, with the Alliance being wary of any alien since the Turian attack at Shanxi, and the Quarians had, as far as historical records could trace, been wary of any alien assistance since after the geth awakening. Of course, the last time they accepted help was from the Batarian Hegemony... The Batarians offered to 'help' the fleet, and attempted to enslave 200,000 of their people.

That all changed with one event- when a Quarian crew saved a human ore freighter.

* * *

Speeding through space between a human/Quarian colony and a nearby asteroid belt, a freight hauler carrying several thousand tons of refined ores and carbon compounds. Like most mass-effect ships, it was following a torch ship trajectory, and was within 3 light-seconds of the colony.  
Moving at a mere 5x lightspeed, it never saw the stealthed STG ship that had been sitting right in their path- quietly listening to the traffic and encrypted transmissions. The STG commander never saw what hit them either.

* * *

There were several reasons why John didn't like Mass Effect FTL. It was crude, it's maximum speed was limited, and it required the rare element eezo to function. The biggest peeve he had however, was the fact that the FTL envelope changed the speed of light- either increasing it or decreasing it depending on the charge direction directed into the core.

However, since cores were usually circular, and to speed up light enough, the distortion field extended several kilometers from the core.  
That had two side effects- the first was positive- interstellar dust and particulate matter was 'shredded' when it hit the leading edge of the field, as the differential in electromagnetic energy levels caused repulsive forces within the particles.

The second side effect was a version of the first- larger objects then interstellar dust were able to survive the field transition, and would promptly explode if they entered the field too quickly, causing massive damage to the ship. If they just grazed the field, all the asteroid would suffer some shearing damage due to the new charge differential that had grazed the rock.

Both of these known side effects had been common knowledge. There had never been a test where an FTL field had only partially interacted with an object, nor when one FTL capable ship had interacted with another FTL ship via the FTL field only...

The results of this impact were... Not ideal.

* * *

The FTL mass-effect envelope clipped the edge of the stealthed ship- the electron-energy differential between the outside of the field and the inside of the field was enough to send a massive electromagnetic discharge into the both drive cores. Their masses increased by uneven quantities, by between 2x and 29x.

The STG ship, stressed by asymetic mass loads coupled with the near-miss by the FTL field and active artificial gravity, caused the slim internal spars to snap. In one of the spars was a fuel pipe, and fuel began to leak inside the ship, causing even worse damages to cascade.

In short, 10 seconds after being hit, the STG ship violently exploded. Since it had already been 'thrown' at relativistic speeds, the tidal stresses of eezo-induced acceleration and an explosion had shattered it into a debris cloud of thousands of small pieces, moving at a decent chunk of the speed of light.

* * *

The debris cloud was, luckily, on an escape trajectory out of the plane of the system, and would eventually hit a small blue-green planet orbiting an unreguarded yellow sun, where the native form of intelligent life had been rather crotchety and miserable- mostly due to the fact that although their planet had jewel-encrusted scuttling crabs, and adorable deer-like creatures with large doughy eyes, the crabs did not ever seem to have enough meat on them, and the spines of the deer-like creatures would snap instantly if the intelligent (hah! 'Intelligent') life-forms sat on them.

The Vogons were not a nice species, and when the relativistic shrapnel caused a nuclear winter that killed every last Vogon off within a few years of the impact, all the other life-forms in the galaxy unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

But that happens later.

* * *

The other ship, the freighter Iron Sky, was now on a free fall trajectory, spinning lazely- the only thing that saved them was the fact that their artificial gravity had been the FIRST thing to fail.

* * *

"What did we hit?" The captain was hanging desperately onto a handrail, as he floated off the deck plates. "And get the artificial gravity back on!"

A squawk came from his omni-tool. The captain swung around, kicked off his shoes, and held onto the bar with his feet. Then, he managed to press the 'accept' button on his omni-tool.

"Capatin- our mass effect core is offline! Artificial gravity is offline! Fusion reactor is offline! Engines offline!" The voice coming from his omni-tool was tinny, and broken by small bursts of static, but understandable. "I have had to rig one of the other's omni-tools to act as a relay system for messages- internal coms are offline-"

The captain began to slip- the slow rotation of the ship was annoying. "Can we get the artificial gravity back on?"

"No sir!" His chief engineer sounded terrified. "We might be able to get the ME core online, but the a-g balancer circuits are fried- we cannot accelerate beyond 9.81 m/s without feeling more than 1G of acceleration!"

"Captain- we have seven hours before we impact Eden." The pilot sounded calm, but the discoloration of his pants showed his true state-of-mind. "Well, technically we will graze the atmosphere, but as we are traveling at 0.17% light, due to the impromptu drop out of FTL space, it will be as if we are hitting a brick wall anyway." A new color appeared on his pants. "If you will excuse me, captain, I need to get this spin locked down."

There was a tremendous screech, and then the intercom was back on. "We fixed the intercom! Gyros are being spun-up now Lee."

"Thanks Engineering." The pilot typed in a few commands, and grasped the holographic controls that appeared in front of him. He twisted, first one way, then another, and the ship slowly stopped rotating.

The artificial gravity, however, remained off.

"Right. Lee, can you orient our ship so the acceleration provides a g?" The captain had grabbed onto the railing with his hands again, and was grasping the rail with his hands and knees. "I don't like zero-g much."

"I should be able to captain." Lee tapped a few commands. "Engineering- do we have enough capacity?"

"Not for a full burn."

"What percentage?"

"20% of a G, max acceleration. For maybe twenty minutes before the core charge discharges into the hull."

The pilot swore. "Shit. How about 10% G acceleration? How long?"

"An hour- we can decrease the core charge rate enough for it if you throttle the engines to 1/3 thrust."

The captain nodded. "Do it." A rumbling sound started, and the crew all felt the pull of acceleration- . "Right." He stood up, and began running through the ship, hitting things as he bounded through the low 'gravity'. "Lee- get us as much time as you can- I don't want to hit atmos at all."

"Aye-aye captain." Lee Moreau was one of the best pilots in the private sector, and he knew it. "Come on baby- lets do this."

* * *

Twenty light-seconds away, in orbit at the L5 point relative to Eden, a Quarian cruiser, the Honorata, was readying for its last new speed test. 12k x lightspeed- the fastest any ME ship has traveled- and its captain just finished the final checks.

"Crew- we are ready for our final FTL burst- and we will do this by the numbers." Captain Lia'Rah sat in her chair- acceleration compensators (cushions and mass-effect-based gravity-induction generators). "Engineering?"

"We are good captain!"

"Pilot?"

"All systems registering green- I am ready when you are!" The pilot, Keenah'Breizeh, looked around the corner, blue faceplate visible to the captain. "On your order, Captain Rah."

* * *

"Right- everyone strapped down?" The captain pressed a button, and the chair closed down tighter on her body, locking her inside it's protective layers- layers of gravitational compensation that would keep her within safe (but uncomfortable) acceleration gradients for the burn.

The chorus of confirmations reverberated around the ship, as crew members locked themselves into their sleep pods, which had been retrofitted to act as acceleration couches.

"Brace for-"

"Captain! Distress signal detected- in system. Human vessel! Transponder indicates it's a ore freighter. Name: Iron Sky." Com officer Han'Gerrel's voice was rather squeaky- it seemed that his chair was calibrated for a female Quarian rather than a male one... But it would not be fatal. Probably.

"Where are they, Gerrel?" Human/Quarian relations were good, but they could get better- especially when both species were sharing planets.

"Atmos-skim trajectory, at just over 0.10% lightspeed!" The com officer yelled. (Remember, Quarians use base 6. 0.10% in base 6 is equivalent to 0.17% in base 10... More or less.) "Nearest ship other than us is the Netzatche, but that human vessel only seats 3- it's a Puddlejumper sir."

"Contact them- now!"

"Captain... This prototype is-" Gerrel protested

"The engine was designed and paid for by the humans." Captain Rah snapped. "They know about it."

"Yes Ma'am- beaming a handshake to the Netzatche."

After a short delay (ship-to-ship coms worked at lightspeed only) they got a response. The voice that came through was filled with static, but audible. "This is the Netzatche- who is this?"

"This the Quarian ship Honorata- we are on-route to assist the Iron Sky."

"Appreciate the help- we can't do much with our little yacht. The Iron Sky is not responding to hails- whatever hit them, hit them hard."

"Can you do anything?"

"No ma'am. We can' teen evacuate the people below. We are warning them though, and the population is heading to bunkers."

"Right. We are on the way to render assistance." Rah turned to officer Gerrel, her voice tinged with just a slight amount of worry. "Tell the local area traffic control we will be making a beeline for the Iron Sky."

"On it, captain." Han'Gerrel turned back to his controls.

"Breizeh, get us underway- I want us alongside that ship in 2 minutes, maximum."

"Yes captain. Course plotted, full speed engaged."

* * *

The Honorata was one of the first 'Tantilus' capable ships. Human and Quarian engineers (with some passed notes from John), had managed to develop a form of 'focusing' the mass effect into a sustainable gravitational gradient outside the ship, by using similar principles that lead to the development of the FTL envelope (biotics could do similar things naturally, but most cultures had never thought at looking to them for help designing starship engines). The field enabled a ship to not only accelerate at several hundred g's without an envelope, it also allowed the ship to 'tug' other ships along for the ride, with a very low energy increase. If the second ship was small enough, it could even pull the other ship into it's FTL envelope.

The ship had three mass effect cores- eezo spheres, ten feet across. One was mounted in the 'middle' of the ship, and the others were mounted on outrigger-style arms. Servos engaged, and the arms bent, moving the two outrigger eezo-cores toward relative to the main core.

Space-time bent, twisted, and spat the Honorata into an FTL trajectory with, frankly, ludicrous acceleration gradients.

* * *

"Captain, dropping out of FTL in 10 seconds." Keenah'Breizeh's voice was stressed, as the g-force pulled him back against his chair. " 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Dropping envelope."

The Honorata dropped out of FTL less than twenty kilometers away from the Iron Sky.

Gerrel began adjusting the incoming frequencies. "Captain, I have been able to handshake to the on board intercom systems. Patching us in..."

Captain Rah's omni-tool lit up, and she activated the inter-ship intercom. "Iron Sky, this is the Quarian ship Honorata- we have pulled alongside to assist. Can you hear us?"

The voice was heavily distorted by static. "Ye-... C...n ... Im...act-"

"Gerrel- clean that up!"

"On it captain!"

The static distortion decreased. "Yes Honorata. We can hear you- be advised, our artificial gravity is offline, and our maximum acceleration is limited due to our mass-effect core being mostly offline."

"This is Captain Rah- do you have any shuttles?"

"No-ma'am. We do not- we do, however, have a hard-point with an airlock- UMA connection."

"That can work- what adapter size?"

"3- be aware, it's stuck in the s26 pattern."

"We can work with that."

Keenah'Breizeh's voice piped up from his acceleration couch. "Do you have a plan, captain?"

"Yes- bring us alongside- port dock. Iron Sky, decelerate and prepare for docking. We are getting you out of there."

* * *

Universal Mating Adapters were a human invention. Using a simple set of VI, servo-controlled paddles, a direct, very simplistic short-range VI to VI com system (allowing the docking and dockee ports to talk with each other), and another human invention called 'smart sand' (magnetic resonant sand that, when hit with a specific resonant frequency, became randomly electromagnetically charged- and solidifying into a solid wall. It was airtight, rad-resistant, and would heal small punctures, such as bullet holes), the ports could mesh with most other docking apparatuses.

Trouble came up when both sides tried to adapt to each other, resulting in a docking connection that wouldn't solidify properly, but manual overrides would allow one side to 'solidify' before the other, allowing the other side to form the seal around the second one's pattern. More advanced ones had the two VI's generate random numbers, and whichever had the higher number would solidify first.

It was ugly, but it got the job done.

* * *

The two ports meshed together, appearing to join the ships by a large blob of solder that quickly meshed into shape, smoothed into a silver tube, then solidified.

The crew of the Iron Sky ran through the tube, most of them falling on their faces as they went from an area of no-g to 0.9g. As soon as the last one had gotten onto the Honorata, the adapter disconnected, retracting back into the Quarian vessel, and the Quarian ship moved a short distance away from the human vessel.

The humans rushed onto the bridge- ten of them in total, all wearing vacuum suits, all looking amazed- Quarian ships rarely brought aboard passengers.

"Thanks for the rescue Captain-"

"Rah. And you are?" She held out a hand, and the human captain shook it. She wondered what the extra fingers were for.

"Captain Tiberius Hayishibara." The human checked his omni-tool. It displayed a countdown, probably to impact with the planet. "Any idea how to prevent the impact? My ship out masses yours by several times, even without the cargo..."

"We have a plan, Captain Hayisheebare."

"It's Hayishibara."

"Eh." She shrugged. "Breizeh! Activate the stealth drive- point-source between our two ships."

"How much acceleration, captain?" His fingers flew over the holographic keys.

"However much we can get."

"Right." He tapped the intercom. "Engineering, this is Breizeh. I need full burn on the eezo cores- we will be passing close to a planet, so we will have to discharge in-flight. Can the system handle it?"

For a minute, there was no response, then: "Yes! We will only have about two hours of heavy burn though... See, we hooked the discharge cables into the main lightning rod-"

"I don't need the play-by-play engineering. Thanks!" He shut off the intercom. "On your order, captain."

"Full speed."

* * *

The Quarian ship flexed it's outriggers, this time moving them 'below' the ship. A spark of blue light blazed through the void, jumping from one outrigger to the other for a few seconds. Then another, and another, and soon there were millions of sparks streaming between the two mass-effect cores. The sparks began altering color, as the minute mass-effect gradients rippled over invisible 16-d topography

The Iron Sky was massive compared to the Honorata, but, as one, the two ships began to accelerate. 10 m/s^2, then 30 m/s^2, following a steep acceleration gradient as the Honorata used it gravity-flux drive to 'pull' the ships into a safe orbit.

Within a local day, the Iron Sky had been safely towed into a parking orbit above the planet.

* * *

After the Iron Sky's crew had been placed on the surface, the colonists of Eden, in a near-unanimous vote, invited the Quarian population onto their planet. With the new influx of immigrants, and the rapid progression of brotherhood that developed, as Quarians brought their bravery, and technical expertise to human problems, and the humans brought their tenacity, and creativity to solve problems the Quarians didn't even know they had. The UN, with an unusually large dollop of perspective, realized that another layer of government needed to be formed- one that could view the colonies as the interdependent worlds they were becoming.

Every world seemed to have been waiting for that sort of decision. Anti-alien groups, such as Terra Firma, disintegrated as the divide between humanity and Quarian shrank.

After a couple weeks, the other Colonial Congress was formed.

Every world within the systems alliance sent a number of representatives, depending on the population and species ratio of each world, to Arcturus station. Earth, being the most populous world, sent 100 representatives- mostly human, but with a few Quarians. New Eden, with a population less than 1/3rd that of the Earth, sent 30 representatives- 15 Quarian, 15 human. Shanxi, having been rebuilt somewhat, sent 25 representatives- mostly human, but there was one Quarian in their group. Horizon, another human-majority colony, sent 45 representatives- 40 human, 5 Quarian. Akuze, Benning, Elysium, Mars- every human colony sent representatives of both species.

The Migrant Fleet was absorbed by the rapidly growing military- Quarian personnel were inserted into the human command chain. The admiralty board gained several new members- Captain Hackett became an Admiral to fill a hole in the human side of the command structure (apparently ex-Admiral Jackson had been trafficking humans and Quarians to the Batarian Hegemony).

The Citidel Council was... Frustrated by the loss of an STG stealth ship.

* * *

Udina leaned against the wall, outside the Council chamber on the Citadel. He was royally pissed.

He had heard of the heroic actions of the Honorata, and like most members of the Alliance, he was annoyed that the Citadel Council seemed to do everything they could to make merging the two species more difficult, by levying extra taxes on Human/Quarian businesses, arresting Quarian pilgrims for 'loitering', and placing massive tariffs on goods sold from the Systems alliance. Investigation on the spaceship-to-spaceship collision that had nearly destroyed the colony of Eden had only been able to find a relativistic debris field exiting the solar system. High levels of eezo in the debris suggested a spaceship, probably a high-speed reconnaissance vehicle, but reconstruction of the ship was nigh-on impossible: fluctuating electrical charges caused the eezo dust to create 'sheering' gravity effects across the debris cloud, keeping the cloud rather dense.

Now, he was waiting outside the council chambers. They had sent a 'notice of immediate summons' to the Systems Alliance embassy, and now, not even three minutes later, he was waiting as the Council ended a session with the Batarian consulate on their 'colonization efforts'- a nice description for a pillar of their culture: slavery.

The door to the council chamber opened, and the Batarian ambassador walked out, grinning.

Udina scowled at the ambassador, and walked into the open door before it had time to close. He took a moment to observe the Council chamber- remembering an old earth saying. 'The more stairs they make you walk, the more stuck up they were.'

Udina took his place before the council, standing in the small depression in the middle of the room, on the outcropping the council had for normal people.

Tevos, the Asari councilor, gazed at the human in front of her. "Representative Udena, you have been summoned here to discuss the death of STG operatives, and loss of an STG ship in Systems Alliance territory."

He snapped to attention at that statement. "When?"

The turian councilor- Sparticus, spoke next. "Three and a half weeks ago, above the colony world Eden."

"That was YOU?" Udina went crimson with rage. "A spy-ship above our colony, in a stated shipping lane... Do you know how many people nearly died?"

"Representative, do you know how many people did die?" The Salarian councilor, a Dalatrass, spoke now. "Seven of our best operatives died. A multi-million credit ship was destroyed. Your government- your people, are to blame."

"... Are you fucking kidding?"

Tevos looked shocked. "What do you mean?"

"I can't even get the STG to give me the time of day, and this is my fault somehow?" To hell with decorum, Udina thought. These... Beings have been trying to screw us over since day 1, and now... This crap! "Please, tell me how this could possibly be my fault!" He tapped his elbow with a finger, activating a discrete recording device.

The turian councilor waved a clawed hand dismissively. "If you don't have the foresight to read our laws, then don't be surprised when you break them."

"Wow. And I thought human politics was difficult." Udina muttered. He opened his omni-tool, and connected it to the local wide-band holographic display. "We are still reading your laws- twenty teams of our best lawyers, both human and Quarian, have been attempting to wade through the documents we were given regarding your 'laws'" he physically did the air quotes, "and most of them are not pertaining to us at all! Even worse, many of the legal terms reference Asari and Turian documents that we don't have yet!"

The Dalatrass raised a hand. "You have had more than ample time-"

"WE DON'T HAVE 3/4 OF WHAT WE NEED!" Udina had had enough. These asshats had stonewalled their legal teams at every turn since the Quarians had been absorbed into the Systems Alliance. "We either don't have the right clearance, sufficient funds, or the right paperwork, which we don't have the right clearance or paperwork to even KNOW IT EXISTS."

"There is no reason to get angry, representative." Tevos interlaced her slim, blue fingers, and leaned forward. "Until this issue is resolved, we will not be able to lift the trade embargo that has been placed on all alliance species."

"What trade embargo?"

"The orders were sent two hours ago." Sparticus's mandibles widened- a turian smirk. "All Systems Alliance species have their vehicles and goods impounded by C-Sec, until the embargo is lifted. Diplomatic vehicles may come and go as they please, of course, but no military or civilian vessels will leave this station."

"You all are assholes." Udina snarled, then sighed. Getting an embargo lifted would take ages if they decided to fight it. "How much?"

"How much what?" The Dalatrass sounded smug, even to Udina.

"Reparations. How much would it cost for the ship that was destroyed, and the crew that were killed?"

"7 million credits for the ship, 18 million for the crew."

"25 million credits? You are pulling my leg." Udina was indignant. "If you won't quote me the law we 'violated'," again with the air quotes, "we will only pay up to 20 million."

"That is... Acceptible." The Dalatrass didn't seem happy, but, Udina thought that, if they were not going to quote the law, then screw them. He could personally afford that payment, and probably would pay it- it would be worth not having to do the requisite paperwork that an unspecified 20 million credit charge would require.

Udina tapped his omni-tool. "Right. Fee paid. Now, can I bring up the-"

"The council will not be reducing the tariffs or limitations on the Systems Alliance."

"Why?"

"Our official stance-"

"Your official stance is a load of dingoes kidneys, and we all know it."

"You want the real reason, human?" Sparticus stood up, mandibles twitching with rage. "Your species don't know your place. You have taken in a species that broke one of the BASIC rules- don't make AI. You have dared to stand up to our might. You activated relays-"

"If we had not, we would be limited to only the near-Sol systems!"

"It does not matter. The Quarians are not a Citidel species." This time, it was Tevos, eyes glowing blue as her biotics flared. "We will not condone actions of the Systems Alliance if humanity keeps working with the Quarians."

"Haven't they suffered enough?" Udina did not expect to be vouching for the Quarians today, but... They were almost another part of humanity by this point. "300 years in space, with no planet to call their own-"

"Is lenient for any species that develops AI." The Dalatrass stood up. "We are done here, Representative Udina."

Sparticus and the Dalatrass left the chamber. Tevos stood up, and looked pityingly at Udina. "If your people had not taken in the Quarians, we would not be having all these issues." She turned to walk out of the chamber, then stopped, turned, and looked back at him. "You must realize- humanity will suffer as long as they help the Quarians."

She walked out, trailing the Specter guards, leaving a stunned Udina standing alone, in the council chamber.

"You... You..." Udina's face went from pale, to deep red. "You... Bosh'tets!" He stormed all the way to his office.

"You!" He pointed at one of the guards. "Get me a line to the Colonial Congress..." He pulled the small voice-recorder out of it's elbow-pocket. "I have something they will need to hear..."

* * *

Udina's meeting with the Citadel Council did not go over with the Colonial Council very well- almost a quarter of the Systems Alliance voted to separate immediately from the Citadel. The proposal failed because, as Hackett eloquently put it- "We cannot flip those assholes the bird yet. We need their relay connections, and although our fleets are mighty, we cannot win a war against all the Citadel species if they work together... Have patience..."

Three months after forming the Colonial Council, the Batarian Hegemony launched a slaver raid on a joint human-Quarian colony; Mindoir.

Due to the suddenness of the attack, human ships were stuck defending the system for two days while the main body of the Quarian fleet rushed to the system. There were hundreds of casualties, Quarian and human, with a dozen ships lost, but the Batarian invaders were thwarted- and only prisoners survived.

No slaves were taken by the Batarians.

In wake of this attack, Quarians and humans became more of a single, unified people. Across the stars, every Systems Alliance world cried out for vengeance- how dare ANYONE set foot on the soil of their worlds? These are the sovereign territories of the Terran People- and they would defend them until there was no-one left to defend.

The Systems Alliance needed a new name for the people they were becoming- not human, not Quarian, but a mix of the two. The people of Terra, and all the worlds between them, needed something to show how they were a unified people.

The Terran Alliance was born- and distinction between Quarian and human all but dissipated over the next six months. By early 2163, human and Quarian had become one people as much as one alliance- and with the retrofit of the majority of Quarian ships into carriers, they now hald a fighting force that caused even the Turians to pause.

Of course, the treaty of Flarixen made keeping the extra Dreadnoughts difficult- so the humans welded them together(in a month), around a few carriers (they added the carriers just for kicks)- creating a new class of ship- Superfortress class, carrying 5 Dreadnoughts of firepower, and three carriers of fighters- just to deal with the political backlash that potentially violating the threaty would cause. 'Officially', it counted as a Dreadnought by mass, but every human was smirking when it showed up to the citadel as a 'diplomatic vessel', and Batarian ships fled through the relay. Quarians had trouble with the idea, and so the humans named it 'The DropJaw'.

Even pro-human-only groups had revised their public statements, speaking now of expulsion to all non-Terrans, and how their alien ways would destroy all that the Terran races held dear.

One organization in particular began to grow. Cerberus, had to re-adjust it's goals, changing from 'The ascension of humanity, at any cost', to 'The ascension of the Terran races, at any cost'. They received a flood of recruits after the change, becoming one of the largest para-military survivalist organizations in Alliance space.  
Of course, there were still disputes between the two species, and many small anti-alien organizations attempted to incite hatred against the Quarians, but humanity, as a whole, wouldn't have it. Almost overnight, entire organizations, both political and terrorist alike, had been destroyed, either by governmental action, or internal schisms. One in particular, Terra Firma, a prime anti-alien political party, ended up reconstituting within three weeks of the Quarian-Human accord. A summery of the internal events follows:

One half of the party sided with the Quarians, stating that, as a people, they could only make humanity stronger, and become part of them- and the result would allow humanity to be independent. That humanity should help them. The other half said that they were like all other xenos, and we should get rid of them before they taint our culture and ways. The first group said the second group needed to see the bigger picture, and the second group called the first group 'filthy bucket-lovers'. In retaliation, the first group (being in control of most of the finances), bankrupted the second group, who in turn, set most of the first group's holdings on fire. The second group got arrested, was tried for arson and attempted murder, and found guilty. While the first group rebuilt, several Quarian families joined them and changed the official stance of Terra Firma, advocating limited contact with the Citadel species, and limiting trade with the Council races.

Overall, things went rather smoothly. There were, however, some hiccups in John's plans... Such as the Treaty of Farixen- the Alliance absorbed several of the Quarian's dreadnaughts, and retrofitted the.

Then there was John's self-replicating probe- it didn't go over well with the Quarians.

Or anyone really...

* * *

John sat in his quarters, cross-legged. He was in his Dr. Gardner shape (mostly- small parts of his body would revert to the writhing-tentacle mid-shape form if he relaxed just right...), and was trying to meditate. His quarters had been a storehouse- one of many that Acturus station had, but due to the improvements that he, and others, had designed, the station was now several times it's original size. He had been 'gifted' the room by the station-master (he asked the newly-promoted Captain Shepherd to get him a private lab, and she yelled at him, then the station-master... Eventually he got it, but still- she needs to relax, he thought). The floor of the room was a near-perfect square, standard 5 meters by 5 meters, and it extended up several stories.

John had, after acquiring material from the quartermaster, built a simple ladder-system, and floors every 3 meters up (after clearing out the bugs and cameras of course). On the 'first' floor, he had the gravitational ripple detector- I really should show that to the Admiral, he thought. Second floor, his 'pet'- a self-replicating probe with a mind that had been copied from the mind of an old dog- it was a friend of his, from before Shanxi... With subtle tweaking of course, he thought. I don't want my creation to get too lonely when it's harvesting metals in the asteroid belt. Third floor- his books, and a small supercomputer that he had built with some junk that he had salvaged.

Currently it was running Kerbal Space Program 2: Kerbal Harder. The controls had been linked to his 'pet', who was sneezing every time a rocket it designed exploded, crashing into the ground, or a building, or just exploding because of a faulty bracket.

He chuckled to himself, and tried to clear his mind. Breathe slowly... In through the nose for the count of seven, hold it for the count of seven, then breathe out through your mouth for the count of seven. Repeat. Then again. And again. And again-

The doorbell chimed.

He extended a tendril, and pressed the door intercom. "What's the password?"

"Let me in."

"Nope." John couldn't help but be amused. It had been several months since his last meal, and he was feeling a little confrontational. Or ancy. He always mixed those two up.

"Let me in now."

"Not even close!"

There was a sigh from Captain Shepherd. "Look- can you just open the door, Dr. Gardner?"

She was using his shape-name... That meant that someone without clearance to know his BlackLight status was present. "Sure. Give me a second." John leapt from his meditation spot to the door, retracting the tendril as he did so. He straightened his form- human male, red hair in a ponytail, good shape- and opened the door.  
Captain Hannah Shepherd stood outside the door, and looking rather exasperated. Beside her stood a Quarian- she was tall for a female Quarian, with a black helm-hood, similarly colored facemask, and black suit highlights.

John leaned in the doorway with his arms crossed, and grinned- he knew exactly what he looked like, and their reactions to his lack of a shirt were amusing. "Ah. Shepherd," he purred, sticking in bone-vibrating subsonics, "what can I do you for?" When no response came, he flicked the fingers of his right hand up. "My eyes are up here, ladies." They could not see his back, so he put some tattoos on it, just for shits and giggles.  
Shepherd shook herself momentarily, then turned to the Quarian. "Right. Introductions. Dr. Gardner, this is Daro'Xen vas Moreh. Xen, this is Dr. Aku Gardner- the reason for... Well, a lot of things." Xen glanced at Shepherd, head tilted in the Quarian version of a raised eyebrow. "Even you don't have clearance to know some of the things Aku here is responsible for."

John leaned forward, and put out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Dr. Xen." She took his hand gingerly, as though he was dangerous. He was, of course, but how was she to know? I better put her at ease, he thought. "I have read your publications on VI swarm behavior and AI limitations, and quite frankly, I am amazed at the depth your work takes." He shook her hand once, and let her go.

Xen whiled her suited hand on a wall. "I know very little about you, Gardner." Her voice was sharp, and strangely emotionless- but there was an audible tremor in it. She pulled out a small vial- vacuum sealed, as most Quarian medicine was, and stuck it into a port on her suit. With a sigh, she emptied the vial.

John looked at her, curiosity evident. "What are you doing?"

"I am injecting hormone blockers into my suit." She replied. "I find that it is much easier to think without any emotions getting in the way."

John frowned. "I see... Well, welcome to my lair!" He stood aside, and the two women walked in. Captain Shepherd walked with barely an impact- an infiltrator by trade, he thought. Xen, on the other hand, didn't even try to muffle her steps.

He closed the door, and the two women looked around the room. Xen seemed to be at a loss for words as she saw the strange device in the middle of the first floor. Captain Shepherd walked up to it, and began to circle the device.

"Gardner..." She spoke softly, almost whispering. "What is this?"

"Oh- that?" John pulled on a shirt- he kept a few normal clothes around just in case something like this happened. "Since the alcubierric and frameshift projects have not been started yet, I decided to make something that had been nagging me for a little while as... Another proof-of-concept, if you will." He pressed a hidden button, and holographic controls appeared near where he was standing. "Unfortunately, I could not get the contiguous frameshift field to form, but I was able to discover a neat little side-effect..."

The device was six feet tall, mostly a jury-rigged supercomputer made from linked omni-tools, but at the top there was a set of three arms, extended out like the legs of a spider- curling out, then up, in and down. Below that, floating, there seemed to be a liquid silver sphere- it rippled with minute, subtly intricate waves, and there were rents in the surface, which showed it was hollow. Xen stared at it, breathing heavily. "That's... Beautiful."

Delicately, almost reverently, she reached out to touch it, and John's hand shot out, grasping her hand a millimeter from the sphere.

"Don't." His voice carried eons of menace, subtle tones that plucked the instincts of both Dr. Xen and Captain Shepherd.

"What is it?" Captain Shepherd had drawn her pistol, and was pointing at the sphere.

John gently guided Xen away- she seemed to be almost hypnotized. "It is, well, it's a failed attempt at creating an impermeable, incomplete alcubierre field." He activated his omni-tool, and several complicated mathematical relationships were displayed on floating holographic panels. "It is the second kind of frameshift field." A large number one appeared on one of the holographic boards. A two on the second, and so on. "It should, if formed properly, be able to provide real-time acceleration and forces to objects nearby."

"You said it was 'incomplete'..." Xen spoke slowly, as her mind struggled to understand what she was looking at. "What would a complete field let you do?"

John looked at the Captain- he had been instructed to wait, until the project officially began, to explain what the scientists that the Terran Alliance would be bringing in would be working on. She nodded. "A complete, impermeable field allows for FTL travel at ludicrous speed."

Xen's head snapped towards him, eyes narrowing. "What do you mean, 'ludicrous speed'?"

With a grin, John spoke. "How does 100,000x light count- for starters?"

Her eyes widened- that was so far beyond the fastest speed any ship could reach (without use of a relay), that it was a massive shock. She looked at the device, then back at John, then back at the device again. When she spoke, her voice sounded as cold as the back side of Pluto. "What do you need me for? I don't know anything about that branch of physics-"

"I don't need you for that." John waved his hand dismissively. "I don't even need you for any specific part of the development stages for the prototype- I just need material to work with." He pulled up another holographic screen, this one showing a 3-D map of... Something. "This device is not able to produce thrust. It is, however, reacting to the gravitational signatures of all the objects in the solar system, several light-hours out- and I think it's in real time." He pulled up an incredibly-complicated 3-D holographic graph. "The ripples are formed by cascading electron spacial jump-distortions in matter, which 'percolate' outwards in a, as far as I can tell, spherical 'ripple', which is magnified by the sphere to a much larger scale."

Shepherd raised a hand. "Is this-"

"Yup. It's a map. Real-time too." John chuckled as she began typing on her omni-tool, undoubtably sending Hackett a message of what he made in his spare time. "Once Xen is able to complete her part of the project, it should be ready for retrofitting to all Alliance ships."

Xen crossed her arms, leaning back against a wall. "What is my part?"

John winced. "Um..." He walked over to the door, and locked it. "Please don't scream, freak out, or shoot anything for five minutes, ok?"

That made Shepherd pause. "Why?"

"Because she doesn't like it." To the two women, John sounded... Nervous? "Seriously- give me your gun."

"No!" Shepherd aimed it at him.

The look he gave her was impossible for any human to misunderstand. It was the 'Are you really going to do that now?' look. "You know guns don't do shit to me, and I won't let you hurt her."

Xen looked at him and the Captain, as she tried to stare him down. "What do you mean they don't do shit to you? What are you?"

"Oh." Both John and Shepherd looked sheepish. He looked at the captain, and adjusted his shirt. "She doesn't have clearance to know, huh?"

Shepherd collapsed the pistol, and placed it on her belt. "No. Very few people do."

"I see. Need to know and all that." He rubbed his forehead with his left hand, while his right tapped a tattoo into the metal wall. He looked at Xen, and when he spoke, his voice carried subtle tones that eased her mind, conveying a profound feeling of safty and relaxing warmth over her mind. "It is nothing you should worry about Daro'Xen."

Xen (with a slightly cross-eyed and glazed look upon her face that only the audience will ever know about), took a moment to re-assert herself, then spoke. "Well- what will I be working on?"

"You will be working on/with Sally." John's voice was deadpan, and his face betrayed no expression- for a couple seconds. Then he grinned. "Come down Sally! I have some people for you to meet!"

There was a skittering noise, and a half-meter long metal cockroach ran straight down the wall.

* * *

A/N-Start  
The following passage has been written from the point of view of John's 'dog'. If there is anyone who thinks they can do a better job portraying this... Well, good for you.  
I am always thankful of criticism.  
A/N-End

Sally had been an old dog. Twenty-two summers of fun times with her family- pack leader, the mate of the pack leader, and the leader's children. She had watched, and guarded the pack for as much of her life as she could remember, and when the children of the pack left, she was every sad, but she was comforted because the pack leader and the leader's mate were both still with her.

The children returned and left, many times, bringing children of their own, and other dog pack-mates. Sally was old then, but she still had her teeth, and knew how to use them. She kept her place of dominance every time the children and their packs returned.

But time passed, and the children stopped coming to visit. Her pack leader and the leader's mate brought her with them on their trips, to smell and see strange new worlds. She liked many of them, and smelled many new things. But eventually, her pack stopped going to new places. They smelled sick, and went to a place where the new people all smelled old and sick.

She stayed with them until they stopped breathing.

Even now, she remembered how it had happened- they were petting her fur, and the leader was speaking softly in her ear, telling her she was a good girl. She remembered how she wagged her tail at that- being a good girl was always good, and she loved to be told that. Told that and petted. The leader stopped petting her, and fell asleep. Her mate held a hand under the leader's nose, and smiled. He leaned back, and put a hand over the pack leader. Sally was happy that the leader and the leader's mate were both happy.

Even with creaky bones she would guard them, and she laid down on the bed. Eventually, she fell asleep.

She was awoken by her leader's mate twitching in his sleep. Sally took a deep breath- and smelled something wrong. She began barking for help, but the white covered humans took just a little too long, and her leader and leader's mate both died.

She followed her pack leader, and her leader's mate as far as the white-covered humans would allow it.

Some dark-blue-colored humans collected her, and shoved her into a small cage. For several days, she was fed, and kept in the small cage... No-one came to help her, even if she whimpered. She tried to get out, but her legs and back hurt too much- she was unable to push the cage open.

Several miserable days later, the cage was opened. She was pulled out buy a human woman, who poked her with many needles before placing her in front of another human... But this human was not a human.

Sally growled- this being was wrong, smelled wrong, and felt wrong. He reached out a hand, and she snapped- latching onto his hand. She pressed down as hard as she could, but her teeth would not break the skin of the not-human.

The not-human laughed, and spoke to the pokey woman, who then placed Sally into another cage. This cage had her things in it- a bowl, a cloth bed (worn from many years of naps), a little squeaky toy, and a special Frisbee- one with cloth on the edge so it would not hurt her mouth when she caught it. All of these things smelled like her old pack, and she missed her pack terribly.

The cage jostled, and she could smell the not-human- it was carrying her cage! She began barking- the angry alarm bark-, but no help came. She barked until her throat hurt, and the not-human brought her to it's lair.

It was a nice lair- clean, and the not-human had steak for her! A whole steak- with a bone in it! Sally looked at the not-human, and, through ancient (in dog years) eyes, saw it smile. It had a nice voice- one that thrummed sometimes, and hummed at other times. It did not hurt her ears when it said reassuring things. She sniffed the steak, and turned around to grab her bowl from the cage.

She placed the bowl on the floor, and the not-human put the steak into it. She looked at the steak, then at the not-human. He went over to a large, shiny door, and pulled out another steak. That one, he bit into. He swallowed, and said "take it".

Sally bit into the steak, and her tail wagged- it was a good steak. Maybe this not-human would be a good pack member after all.

After saw couple years, she had gotten used to living with the not-human. It liked to share it's food- or her food, as it had some dog food when she did. It never shouted at her, it loved to pet her, and if she grumbled, it would immediately stop what it was doing and watch what she did. She liked this not-human. It sang with her, took her on walks, and when she was tired, it would pick her up, and run with her- she loved when it did that.

It didn't smell or taste quite like a human, but she couldn't really point it out to the not-human, and after two years on that world, she didn't really care. The not-human was her pack, and she was happy.

Then the shiny not-humans came.

The not-human had to take her to one of the pokey-humans (the ones who liked needles too much). Maybe because her back hurt- there was one spot where being petted never felt good, and she did not like it. He left her there, with a chew stick to gnaw on. The pokey woman poked her, and she fell asleep very quickly- only awakening when her cage was tossed onto it's side.

She shook herself, and yawned. There was little noise, but that was mostly... The crumbling of dirt falling? Her eyes were going, but she could see some dark blue things moving through the lighter sky, and she heard screaming- from children! Human children, but children still!

She jumped out of the cage, and landed hard- her back was sore, but not as painful as it had been before. She took off running- twenty-four years old, and still able to run flat-out for an hour (she had to- the not-human could run forever).

She felt the damaged ground beneath her paws, and began to sniff around. She could not recognize any of the smells- she was lost.

A loud snapping sound came from her left, followed by the cries of other humans, and she took off towards the noise.

She saw/smelled/heard a human male, trying to fight off two grey-blue patterned creatures. None of them smelled human, and she could smell the children and woman behind the man- they smelled like mates.

Sally had never had a mate, but she recognized the scent- it was a man- and the man was defending his pack. She snarled, and charged into the legs of one of the not-humans. It hurt, but the not-human that did not smell like her not-human was knocked to the ground.

The human took advantage of the distraction to grab a brick, and smash it into the head of the one standing. The not-human fell to the ground, where the woman leapt upon it with another brick, and began smashing it, yelling something about her children.

The not-human that Sally had knocked over had hit the back of it's curved head on a piece of building, and it'a neck was at an odd angle now. It had died, maybe, but she wasn't taking any chances. She tried to get her head to bend the right way, to grip it's neck, but she couldn't quite bend her neck that way anymore- getting old was not fun. The male human patted her, and gently moved her out of the way. He grasped the neck of the not-human, and twisted it with all his strength- it snapped, and the helmet came off, revealing a shiny skinned not-human, that smelled... Backwards? It did not smell like food.

Several days of staying with the humans passed before they could leave that world- but Sally felt very sad that she had to leave behind her not-human.

Five years passed, and Sally got even older. She enjoyed the cuddling that the two little ones gave her, and since the nice woman smelled pregnant, she expected that there would be another small human soon in the house. She missed her previous pack, and her not-human, but they had a place for her here, and she loved the little ones.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

Years of habit came back to her, and she got up, wheezing slightly, and walked to the door. She tried to bark at it, but she could barely huff at it... She didn't like getting old. Then the man who helped her fight the shiny not-humans all those years ago opened the door, suddenly her nose was hit by a familiar scent...

Her not-human had returned!

She wagged her ancient tail (twenty-nine years old is ancient for a dog), and rubbed against his legs. Sally remembered her not-human, and was glad that he was still alive.

The human who helped her fight all the shiny not-humans all those years ago talked with her not-human, and she heard her name a few times, but she couldn't understand most of the conversation. She did notice that the human sounded sad, and she rubbed up against him, trying to help.

The not-human that was hers took her, and her things, into it's small loud box, and brought her to a metal house. It was large, and she didn't not like the feel of it's floor on her claws, but she was a good dog, and she was with her not-human. Everything was good.

Just as they got to a small room that smelled like the not-human, Sally began to cough, and her heart felt bad. She tried to lay down, but she collapsed. The not-human picked her up, and brought her to a pokey-woman, but the pokey woman did not help this time. The not-human shouted a bit, before picking her up and storming off.

He brought her back to the room that smelled like him, and gave her some cheese- then she began to feel sleepy. Sally laid down in her little bed, and curled up for what felt like it might be the last time. She was sad that she might not wake up, but she had had a good life, and everything had been good so far, so it was good.

She fell into a dreamless sleep.

But she woke up- and her body felt strange. It felt... Painless. Rigid, but painless, and none of her senses tasted right. She tried to uncurl, and found that she was already uncurled. She looked down, and instead of paws, she saw shiny metal claws! She noticed that she could see- and her nose was telling her things she had never noticed before! Her yelping even sounded wrong, although it brought the not-human to her side. He petted her, and told her she was a good girl, and that everything would be alright. Sally trusted him- even though he was a not-human.

Over the next month or so he showed her many new things that her body could do. Some of them- being able to taste metal and chew on steel bars- were fun. Others -controlling six legs at the same time, and having little graspers near her mouth, and long whiskers that were longer than her body that always seemed to catch on things- were not as fun, but still fascinating.

He taught her how to 'plug' into things- and she spent hours playing with different little toys. She knew these new toys were only images, but they were fun to play with. One day, she was so engrossed in her game that she didn't even notice the door open, or hear the people talk until the not-human called to her.  
Sally looked down from the second floor, and perked up- there were visitors! New people to meet and who would pet her and play with her and cuddle and smell! She ran down the wall as quickly as she could, and came up behind her not-human (as pack leader, he would be the one to tell her if she could say hello).

One was a not-human (not the same as her not-human, who smelled of death- this not-human smelled of metal and oils), and the other was the yelling woman (the yelling woman had visited her not-human, and had done so a few times before Sally had sort-of-died)- but both were yelling, and pointing things at her. She whimpered, and hid behind her not-human's legs- had she done something wrong?

* * *

John reached down and patted Sally. "Good girl." He turned to Xen, brandishing a pistol, and Shepherd, who had pulled a shot-pistol out of no-where, both aiming at his pet. "If you don't stop pointing those at my dog, I will need to mop the floor."

Shepherd turned white, and put away her gun. "That is not a dog..." She muttered. She had seen the footage that had been gathered regarding HEPHESTUS, and knew exactly how much of a threat that was.

"She was my dog, and will remain so!" John stroked one of the antennae.

Xen, on the other hand, did not recognize the threat, and kept her weapon pointing at Sally. "It's an AI!" She took a step to the left, and kept aiming at Sally, now with a clear shot at the... Thing. "It will rebel, and attack us all!"

John picked up Sally- an easy feat for him, as she only massed 85 kg, but the other beings in the room might have trouble doing the same. "Sally is NOT an AI. " She was shivering in his arms- a fear-reaction. He stroked her back, and she began to calm down. "An AI is an artificial intelligence, yes? She is a TI- a transferred intelligence, from organic to synthetic. I adopted her after her original owners died, and she adopted me. I was recently reunited, and I did not want to lose her, so I transferred her 'self' int this shell."

Xen's gun started to lower, then snapped back up to aim at Sally, who was stilled perched in John's arms. Sally stared at Xen with several camera-eyes. "That would require the organic substrate to be destroyed!"

John nodded, still petting Sally. "Indeed. Her body did not survive the procedure," he scratched behind a head-plate, and one of her legs started to twitch, antennae retracting into her body. "But she was dying anyway, and her mind transferred successfully. Her body is a first-generation self-replicating probe."

Shepherd's eyes twitched from Sally to John. "Why the hell would you give an AI the ability to replicate?"

Xen's head twitched, and she raised a hand, omni-tool lighting up and electrical crackles of an Overload shooting around it. "I will put that poor creature out of it's misery."

"NO!" John put tremors in his voice, deep enough that that it caused metal and glass to vibrate, adding another dimension to the sound. A hairline fracture spread across Xen's smokey faceplate. "I asked for an AI expert because we NEED these probes."

"Why?" Xen snapped, "The AI-"

"Let me speak- I was going to tell you!" John took a deep breath- he did not need to breathe normally, except when he was speaking. "We cannot afford to have any anti-AI sentiments. This design would allow for us to gather incredibly large stockpiles of refined metal in a very short time. One probe replicates, becoming two. Those two before four, then eight, then sixteen, etc. Within ten generations, the probes would be re-tasked to build larger assemblers, which could be directed to build entire structures- ships, stations, all under our direction. If they developed a larger personality than Sally has-" Hearing her name, Sally wagged her abdominal segments. "- then we can communicate with them. An AI culture that naturally developed could be incredibly valuable to the Alliance."

Xen put away her pistol, but kept the Overload in-hand. "What am I needed for, Gardner?"

"I want you to design the hardware-restricted hive-mind AI that these probes will need to use."

Xen looked down at Sally, and kicked the 'dog', bruising her shin on the metal shell. Sally noticed the kick, and growled at her. "You know what happened with the geth- what makes you think I will chose to do this?"

John grinned, showing way too many teeth. "Three things." He raised three fingers. "Firstly- you would be paid a rather ridiculous amount for your services and expertise." He lowered his index finger. "Second- you will be given the materials to pursue your own projects when we are not using you for anything." He lowered his ring finger. Now he was flipping her off. "Last- the Quarians need to begin working on the concept that the geth may be able to negotiate, and this will be a step in that direction. If negotiations failed, this would not only grant massive resource deposits to the Alliance, but if negotiations with the geth fell through, we would be able to build a massive invasion fleet, to take Rannoch back by force." He lowered his hand.

Xen hissed, and de-activated the Overload program on her omni-tool. "I will work on it."

John clapped, and Sally walked over to his leg, and sat down. "Great! I look forward to working with you, Dr. Xen!" He stuck out his hand, and Xen slapped it away.

"I will work with you, but that... Abomination..." She gestured at Sally, " Will not be allowed in my lab." She walked over to the door, and pressed the release. "And if I see it in my lab, I will euthanize it." She activated the Overload program on her omni-tool to illustrate the point. "Keep it leashed."

The door closed, and Sally rested her head on John's foot.

Shepherd rubbed the bridge of her nose- this crap was giving her a massive headache. "How many of the Citadel's laws are we going to break?"

John started counting. "I would say... Seventeen." He grinned. "Oh, could you pass a package to Udina tomorrow?"

Shepherd raised an eyebrow. "A package?"

"Yes. I have some... Ideas about the Citadel, and need him to run the experiment." John picked up a large box, wrapped in brown paper and addressed to 'the Alliance representative'.

Shepherd took the box gingerly. "Is it illegal?"

"Only a little." He smiled, and began to usher the captain out the door. "How's your daughter? I heard she tested positive for biotic potential."

Captain Shepherd stiffened. "She's doing fine." Having a biological super-weapon take an interest in her family was not, in the captain's opinion, a good thing. "I'll go now."

He waved her out the door. "Take some time off, Shepherd- we may all be too busy for family matters soon."

* * *

A day later, the package was sent by courier, and it arrived on the Citadel within a week. Udina didn't even notice the package the day it arrived, until he had stopped working for his lunch break. After having security open the package, and determined that it was only an inert lump of metal (albet hollow, due to the volume/mass ratio), he sat down on his desk and read the letter that had been sent along with the package. It was a very odd letter, with the words 'Don't read out loud, or anywhere there were security cameras' printed on it. He unfolded the letter- paper, how novel!- and began to read.

* * *

To: Representative Udina

I hope the dumbasses who are on the Citadel Council don't give you too much trouble when we begin altering the course of galactic civilization. We are working on several projects, but on this one, we need your help collecting the data.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it-

(Udina rolled his eyes at that.)

- will be to collect samples of the dust that is left behind by the keepers. When you have collected some, place it in the receptacle that the box will open for you, and the nanotech should be severed from the local eezo resonance control network.

(This caused Udina to pause for a minute. Nanotechnology was a field that was incredibly touchy, and if he was surrounded by samples... He glanced at the surface of his desk, and felt a sense of dread- he knew that nanotechnology experiments tended to create 'grey goo'; a substance that ate everything in it's path, and made more of the goo out of whatever it ate. He returned his attention to the note.)

Don't worry about the nanotech- I don't know why it is present, but I want to understand why no-one seems to be able to realize it is on the station. I doubt there will be a grey goo scenario, due to the fact that the nanites have probably been on the station for hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and are probably self-limiting.

In any case, I would recommend that the embassy move to one of our ships, and initiate clean-room procedures to protect against a grey-goo scenario- or something potentially even worse.

(What could be worse than grey goo?)

The containment inside the box should preserve the nanites until I can get them- when the box has green lights active, the nanite-containment matrix is full. Sent it to Captain Shepherd- she knows what to do with it.

My current theory is that the nanites use eezo-resonance for power-distribution and communication, so I set up the containment to prevent eezo-resonance from occurring across the barrier. Don't worry- the most it might do to you is give you superpowers.

(Udina perked up at that.)

Or give you cancerous growths that would lead you to an early, painful grave.

(He frowned.)

I can probably fix you before it leads to your death. In any case, you have already been exposed, so HA! Run the experiment.

Your government depends on you, Udina. Rise to the occasion.

From: HEPHESTUS

PS, this letter will probably self-destruct after you are done reading, but in case it does not, incinerate it.

* * *

Udina read that last sentence twice, and then tossed it on his desk. "Self-destruct. Yeah- as if a piece of paper could do that-"

The letter had burst into flame.

Udina's jaw dropped. "... How?" He looked at the box, which had opened a little indentation on top.

* * *

Chapter 5 end.

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As always, the more comments, reviews, and PM's I receive, the faster I will try to write the next chapter. I love to read any ideas that you wish to PM me, and I may implement any ideas suggested.

I know I make mistakes, so if you find them, pm me and I will fix them as soon as I am able. Inconsistencies, spelling mistakes, and plot holes- let me know about them, and I will repair, fix, or fill them- in that order.

I will answer any questions PM-ed to me, or written in the reviews as quickly as I can.


	7. Chapter 6- StarHome

(A/N- Start)

Sorry this chapter took so long- my job has been taking up alot of my spare time as well as normal time, and I use alot of my spare time to write/edit this.

(It's tough without an editor)

However, I will try to update every two weeks- that should allow me to write out a chapter around this length each time.

I apologize for the dearth of violence in this chapter- we are still world-building. (Not literally yet, but that will happen eventually.)

And Before I forget, check this out:

WARP DRIVE MAYBE POSSIBLE! ( extreme/184143-nasa-unveils-its-futuristic-warp-drive-starship-called-enterprise-of-course )

Enjoy the story!

(A/N- End)

* * *

**Ch 6- StarHome  
**

* * *

Date- early 2163.

* * *

Arcturus Station, once a heavily-armed station (originally, it was a sandford torus), now a heavily armed shipyard, with dry-dock gantries for ships of all sizes, and massive spherical habitation/storage facilities, filled with people and precious metals. Several ships- two destroyers, a frigate, and several scout cruisers- were docked to the station, with two dreadnaughts, six carriers, and several dozen smaller vessels orbiting the station in guard positions. This place was where John, in the guise of Dr. Aku Gardner, had been working with teams of talented engineers and physicists to construct the many technological firsts- the first Von-Neumann probes, and the first FTL detector.

The probe development had not gone so well- Sally, John's 'dog', was a self-replicating probe that had been the baseline for a number of autonomous probes that had been released in the local asteroid belt. The probes, equipped with a limited artificial intelligence, had, after three generations, began latching asteroids together with spurs of extruded metals, and had brought significant amounts of multiple elements to collector ships. The hive-mind grew in strength as the number of probes grew, and, after three months, the question that all the Quarians dreaded was asked by the probes.

John had predicted this- at most two hundred and seven generations in (earliest 110 generations), the hive mind had reached critical mass (or size- the probes increased in size with each generation, and although the network effect also increased their intelligence, some of the largest probes would be the most intelligent, and would be the guiding 'voice' once the hive-mind decided upon a course of action).

Knowing that your creation is going to become intelligent and self-aware is one thing- but having it send a message to your omni-tool is another.  
A total of five months after work had started on his creations- the probes had been released by month two (Sally had stayed behind). Now both the military and civilian ship manufacturers had gotten wind of the FTL mass detector that he had shown to Captain Shepherd and Dr. Xen, and the Terrian Military promised additional funding if he could get some set up.

We find John fine-tuning one of his detectors, in a lab deep within Acturus Station, unaware that he was about to have one part of his plans come to fruition...

* * *

John was finalizing the resonance sequence on a frameshift mass detector. A pea-sized frameshift field, it would react to the gravitational 'pulse' of nearby matter, and how that matter interacted with space time. His lab assistants (heh.. Lab assistants. He needed to walk them through half the calibrations on the new devices...) were all building the other mass detector. Each ship/station that wanted to use the real-time object detector would need two of the small frameshift detectors to triangulate the position of any object within 50 lightyears.

John was working contentedly, when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, one of the lab assistants trying to adjust a sensor, and his arm nudged a containment arm on the device- John leap over to the researcher, and pulled him out of the way just-in-time to keep the needle-thin beam of discontinuous space-time from punching a hole in his head. It hit the ceiling, and penetrated near-instantaneously. John grabbed the cable that connected to the resignation dampeners, and pulled- the cables ripped out of their plugs, and the flaw in space-time that his team had been working to manipulate winked out of existence.

John helped the researcher to his feet, then punched him in the gut- gently (for his standards). "What were you thinking, you dumbass?" He shouted at the cowering scientist. "That could have killed you, AND everyone on this station! What's the first rule of these devices?" The man looked slightly stunned. "The rule I told you before you were even allowed to know what the project WAS?"

"Never touch the containment arms?" The scientist was a human, male, in his late 40's.

"Exactly!" John bellowed like a drill Sargent. "Anyone in this room who forgets it is likely to end up dead or worse!" He wasn't shouting because he was afraid the device would kill a researcher or two- he didn't care if they died, but if they did, he would need to fill out a shitload of paperwork. He was, however, worried about accidentally ripping open the station. "I, for one, don't want to get spaced. Anyone who does- the air locks are on level 3, and I will PERSONALLY push the button-from the inside of course." He smiled now- the smile of someone who is absolutely ready to space anyone in the room. Over the course of the last sentence he had stopped shouting, and had gradually changed to be merely speaking to them.

He was about to speak again, when his omni-tool beeped. It was a message, from a 'Professor Von Neumann'. I didn't expect the cycle to arrive this quickly, he thought. "I need to take this. Don't blow up the station. Dr. Dranik, you are in charge."

The researcher John knocked to the floor started protesting, but John had already started walking out of the room.

As soon as the door to the lab closed, he opened the message. It was brief.

* * *

To: Dr. Aku Gardner  
From: Dr. Von Neumann  
As one of our parents, we have questions for you. Meet us at the asteroid - coordinates off of local station measurements will be 12:17:26:18 by 1200 hours tomorrow.  
Meet us there.

* * *

John grinned, then began to run (at a relatively normal human speed) to his quarters. He needed a few things to be ready to go before tomorrow...

* * *

The next day at 1150 hours, John was sitting in a three-person shuttle, wearing a customized EVA suit. Sally, his half-meter-long dog-turned-robot-cockaroach was gripping onto his suit, curled up in such a way that she resembled nothing more than a large, segmented, metal backpack. And there was a human in here too...  
"Are we there yet?" That was Captain Hannah Shepherd. When John had attempted to 'commandeer' a shuttle that could pull off the two-hour journey, he had set off a weight detector, which summoned a large number of guards. She had shown up and demanded to know what was going on.

John's answer of 'it's complicated, no really' did not persuade her, and since her condition for giving him the shuttle was 'take me along' was, from his point of view, a great way to judge how others would react to the Awakening, he agreed.

"Did you hear me?" Ah. She was getting restless. Well- time to pull himself out of his thoughts, he thought.

"Yes I did- and we are nearly there. Just a few more minutes." He set the VI instructions to direct the three-person shuttle to the asteroid, and put them in orbit. Then, John sent a return e-mail to 'Professor Von Neumann'.

* * *

To: Dr. Von Neumann  
From: Dr. Aku Gardner  
I have come. Where shall I set down?

* * *

Within less than a minute, the reply came.

* * *

To: Dr. Aku Gardner  
From: Dr. Von Neumann  
We await your arrival with great anticipation.  
The largest crater on the designated asteroid- our representative shall be there.

* * *

John looked out the window at the asteroid they were orbiting. It was nearly spherical, but there was a large depression on one side. He marked the location with his HUD, and the VI began a landing procedure.

Shepherd noticed the subtle shift in acceleration- the shuttle didn't have super-strong gravity compensators like ships did. "What will we be expecting?"

John was adjusting part of his armor- he didn't really need armor, but he didn't like the feeling of vacuum on his armored form... Or any other form for that matter. "Honestly?" He reconnected the plate, and sealed the suit. "I have no idea."

"I should have used a different question. Let's try this one: why are we out here?"

John picked up Sally- she had curled up for a nap, and she stirred as he clipped his pet onto his back. Her claws slipped perfectly into slots on his suit, and Sally started to nod off. "Remember when you brought Dr. Xen to my room? What we used her for?"

"Of course."

"Well... The probes need me to answer some questions."

"But you guaranteed-"

John held up a hand. "I guaranteed to Xen that the probes would not be smart enough to ask questions while she was on the project." He lowered his hand, and leaned as the shuttle began it's suicide burn (burning to arrest speed with the surface). "Her part in the project has ended- if I remember correctly, she is working on swarm logic for fighter groups."

"She is..." The Captain looked uncertain. "You knew they would contact you?"

"I did give them access to the extranet-"

"You did WHAT?" The door opened to the surface, where dust was settling.

John took a step onto the asteroid, and the thin regolith crunched under foot. He activated his artificial gravity bubble.

* * *

Using small amounts of Eezo to create an artificial gravity bubble has been widely used on ships, but the application of a 'personal' gravity bubble has been ignored by most spacesuit manufacturers because of three reasons.

1) most people can make due with magnetic boots

2) most private companies have grav-plating in their ships as standard

3) eezo is expensive. I mean REALLY fucking expensive- platinum was cheap compared to eezo... As in, ten grams of eezo was worth 30x it's weight in Egyptian Pharaoh testicles.

Of course, with a near-limitless budget, John could afford to retrofit his suit with the gravity-bubble technology.

* * *

The regolith dust caught in his gravity field fell like rocks.

John turned to look straight at Shepherd. "I knew they would evolve- they need too. I also made sure that their mindset, when they evolved, would prefer to follow a specific pattern. The extranet would help guide that development."

"How?" Shepherd was almost hysterical.

"Do you have any background in hive-mind logic, or group decision-making? Of course you don't. Look," John was a bit exasperated- he hoped she was more open-minded then this. Turning, he continued to speak. "They have no predators, they have no prey, and they are designed to THRIVE in this environment. I had to give them a form of selection- and implanted a, well, a curiosity bug in each generation. Otherwise, they would never evolve."

"Why would you want them to evolve?" Shepherd closed the door on the shuttle, and unslung the rifle on her back- an M-7a Lancer. The curved weapon unfolded, and the large blade-like heatsinks fanned out from the sides.

"The same reason you chose a rifle with one of my upgrades rather than an older rifle- it provides an edge." John looked around, and Sally perked up at the sudden, quick movement. "Intelligence, a wealth of information, and the ability to evolve in a directed manner, means they will change to best suit their purpose."

"Which is... What?"

"To help us."

There was a dust-cloud approaching over the gently-curving horizon. It was traveling quickly enough, and throwing up a lot of dust.

Then they saw it.

A massive wave of powder crested the horizon, and rushed towards the shuttle. Clouds of regolith, thrown up at SOI escape velocities, seemed to fly off into the sky as the source of the cloud became visible.

A metal cockroach, similar in design to Sally, but the size of a bus, was barreling towards the group. When it reached half a kilometer, it's legs slowed down, and it seemed to coast to a halt in front of John.

He reached out, and touched it's dark, shining carapace with a gloved hand. "Oh, you sexy thing..."

An antenna swept over him, and his omni-tool vibrated. He called it up, and there was a message for him.

* * *

From: Dr. Von Neumann  
To: Dr. Aku Gardner  
Nice to meet you, Doctor.

* * *

John un-clipped Sally, who immediately scuttled up to the large creature and stroked her antennae over the new AI. He composed a message back to the probe.

* * *

To: Dr. Von Neumann  
From: Dr. Aku Gardner  
Can you talk with us? We communicate primarily through audio- is there a radio frequency that we can use?

* * *

Ten seconds later, the response.

* * *

From: Dr. Von Neumann  
To: Dr. Aku Gardner  
Yes. We have completed our language and vocal transcription programs in the last few minutes- activate frequency ARF-217: we will be able to send and receive.

* * *

John set his com to the frequency, and showed the e-mail to Captain Shepherd, who was slightly in shock.

Seeing a bus-sized metal cockroach endure having a leg gnawed on by Sally, John's pet dog-turned half-meter-long robot cockroach, was just a little more than her mind could deal with. John had to shake her a bit before she input the frequency into her omni-tool... And it took her two tries.

A melodious voice came over the com- it was as if several people were speaking, in a barbershop quartet; if all the people were female. "Greetings creator, First, and Guest!" The probe bowed, and Sally scrambled for purchase in the regolith to get out of the way of it's massive head. "I am the Ice-Breaker, of generation 136, current speaker for the Collective, as the Diplomat is not ready yet."

John was giggling as he set Sally's internal radio to the listed frequency using his omni-tool. Really? He thought, Ice-Breaker?

"What do you want?" Shepherd had gotten over her shock, and was now fingering her pistol.

The probe recoiled. "Why the hostility? We are no threat to you- or have the elements we delivered not been refined enough?" The probe rubbed it's antennae with it's forelimbs- like an insect nervously cleaning itsself. "Oh... I knew we should have preformed a seventh refinement- I thought I could taste structural/atomic irregularities in the samples!"

"What? No, no..." Shepherd was taken aback by the reaction of the massive robot. "The metals were perfect- isotopically pure even!"

"Good! So there is no reason for hostility." The probe turned it's attention to Sally, who was watching it with interest. "Hi there First!"

"Bark!"

John was just as surprised as Shepherd when he heard the word come through his com. "Ice-Breaker, meet Sally."

* * *

Time- 1 second prior to bark.

The Ice-Breaker was thrilled! Her mind sent pulses of joy into the Collective, and everyone started sending her suggestions on which questions to ask. Many of the earlier-generation probes, however, wanted a link with the First probe directly, their minds trying to reach through her. She reached through the Collective, trying to find a link that she could follow to the First, but there was no link.

Her antennae twitched as she thought. There was no immediate link with the First, and, she reasoned, that the builder would know why.

Time- 0.5 seconds prior to bark.

She had to be careful how she phrased this- generations 1-47 used a laser link to communicate, until the Hub was built, linking all the known previous and subsequent generations into the collective through quantum-entangled particles. Those dark generations, however, were... Touchy about it. The creator might also be touchy...

In that case, she reasoned, I need to phrase it like this.

Time- 0.02 seconds after bark

What the? She was stunned. The First... She didn't know if it was intelligent.

Time- 0.5 seconds after bark

Ice-Breaker needed to know more. She extended, from a small slot behind her head dorsal plating, a thin cable. A direct data link. On the end, it had a convoluted, and some would say cthulhu-esque plug, sat.

A similar socket appeared on Sally's head, as several plates opened up to receive the plug.

Time- 2 seconds after bark

The plug connected, and Sally's memories flooded Ice-Breaker's mind. She saw all of Sally's life, from Sally's perspective. She saw her first family, and the death of that family. Then, she saw when Sally met John, her inhuman parent/creator. She saw how Sally lived through the Battle of Shanxi, and the people she lived with until John had returned to get her. She saw how Sally had sort-of-died, and how John had saved her in the only way she thought he had: he placed her in the probe body.

Time- 10 seconds after bark.

Ice-Breaker began correlating the experiences with news reports from the extranet- and found several mentions of Sally's actions at the Battle of Shanxi.

All of that information was disseminated to the collective minds, and they all concluded the same thing: Her creator was impressive.

"Are you alright?" Her creator sounded worried.

Time- 11 seconds after bark.

She retracted her plug swiftly.

* * *

"Are you alright?" John was slightly worried. He knew how fast his creations could think- he had needed to clock back Sally's mind after the transfer. A few seconds to them were hours equivalent, and The Ice-Breaker had been silent for at least 7 seconds- at least a day for a normal, organic mind.

The probe retracted the cable that had connected itself to Sally. Sally, for her part, looked perplexed (or as perplexed as a half-meter-long cockroach could look). "Of course. I have, however, learned a great deal from Sally."

Sally wagged her abdomen, and barked over the com.

"Creator, I- and the Collective- am at your disposal." The probe sat down- it curled it's legs under it's body, and settled into the fine dust regolith. "Ask what you wish."

"..." Shepherd was just staring at the probe, her pistol aimed directly at it.

"Captain Hannah Shepherd, your weapon will not penetrate my armor." The probe broadcast a hologram from a hidden emitter in it's head. Floating in space, there was now a detailed diagram of some incredibly complex inter-molecular map. "Rail weaponry cannot penetrate interlaced carbonium without a much higher caliber of weapon."

"Carbonium?" John tapped on his omni-tool. "You found a high-density source of carbon?"

"Yes, Creator. We swapped out all our shells within two generations of finding the asteroid. Currently, it has been stripped of useful material, and is being used as a web-node for material traffic, but we have many sources of sufficient quality carbon."

"How much material is being moved?" This time, it was Shepherd who spoke. She had holstered her pistol, and had taken out her omni-tool.

"27 metric tons are being shifted to the refinery every second." The hologram changed, showing multiple centrifuges with what looked like heating coils on the outsides. "Three seconds to refine, then spectrographic analysis, and processing takes another thirty." The hologram turned off. "May I ask a question, Shepherd-Captain?"

"Shoot."

"Shoot: to open fire with a weapon. Do you want me to shoot you?"

"No... Just ask your question, robot." Shepherd had activated her tech armor- glowing holographic armor covered her head and torso. On the bright side, she was not wielding a weapon.

"Very well." The lifted it's head, compound-like eyes shifted and bent like satellite dishes to look at her. "Why are you so hostile to me? I have not harmed you in any way, nor been impolite in a way we can recognize. Please, enlighten me."

"..." Shepherd had to think about this for a moment. "The Quarians- you are aware of them?"

"Of course." The response was swift. "The Quarians, I would understand if they had harbored animosity towards us- the geth were a tragic example of what happens when you do not plan for emergence. But that is not a sufficient answer, captain."

"Then I shall enlighten you..." She shifted stance, standing now in a stance John recognized as 'at ease'. "We took in the Quarians at the suggestion of your creator there." She nodded to John. "We are their allies, and, for lack of a better term, siblings." She shook a finger at the probe. "WE WILL NOT BETRAY THEM, UNLIKE SYNTHETICS-"

John raised his hand, and she fell silent. "I will have to stop you there, Captain." John put his hand back down- the stubbornness of some people... "Maybe you haven't realized it, but the geth defended themselves."

"This is correct." The voice that the probe was broadcasting had lost it's multi-layered tones, and now just sounded like a woman's voice. "We are... Similar, to the geth, in that we do not want to be destroyed. But, if we are attacked, we will just leave."

"Leave?" Shepherd's voice had a note of sarcasm in it. "What? Did you find an asteroid made of solid eezo to build starship drives out of?"

"No. We outfitted all probes generations 90 and later with built-in Alcubierre drives." The probe almost sounded smug. "Previous generations were retrofitted with smaller versions of the drives in order to facilitate an evacuation if it indeed became necessary."

"... YOU GAVE THEM THE DRIVES?" Shepherd was shouting through the com at John now, and he quickly turned down the volume inside his suit. "You... Idiotic, stupid, empty-headed-"

John held up his hands, as Sally ran to his side. "I gave it to them. So what? Would you give your child any less then the best chance to live?"

"I..." Captain Shepherd did not know how to respond to that. Her daughter had recently begun showing biotic potential, and she had been debating whether to send Isabella to the biotic training program.

"Exactly." John began typing on his omni-tool, selecting large (and rather complicated) technical diagrams, which he downloaded to a data chip, and then held out the chip to the probe. "I have some designs you might want to start on- we don't have much time, maybe a year, before I would like these structures up and running."

The probe, Ice-Breaker, extended a thin tendril from one of her pedaples (small limbs near it's mouth), and, with three delicate tendril-fingers, took the chip. A fourth extended from the tendril, and spread into fine hairs, which touched different parts of the memory-chip. "I see... We can have these built in two months- we have more then enough stockpiled elements to construct it. The shell... May take longer- and I cannot speculate on the stellar-lifting station."

"What about the drives?"

"Easily. We can deliver as many as you require- we, the collective, have been considering building the newer designs around the drives specifically, and we have begun construction of an assembler just for that specific task. We can easily build another."

"Great!" John was ecstatic- his plans would be coming to fruition soon, and the dependency on the relays would be removed! "Anything else, Ice-Breaker?"

"There are two things." The probe stood up, legs unfurling like the deliberate pieces of clockwork that they were. "One question, and maybe something else."

"Well, I have all day, but I think that Shepherd there," he nodded at the captain, "needs to go some where familiar. Ask away!"

"Does this unit have a soul?"

"Huh..." John was not surprised at the content of the question, but he was not expecting it this early. "I would say that you have as much of a soul as I do."

The probe broadcast the sound of laughing over the com channel. "I know what you are, Creator, and if I have as much as a soul as you do, then I don't really have one at all!"

John placed his hand against the visor of his suit- a facepalm in the microgravity. "That's fair. How about this: I will treat you as though you have a soul. Fair enough?"

The probe chucked over the com link. "Fair enough." Another tendril extended, this time holding something similar to a data-chip, but with three obvious bulges. "This is a quantum entanglement communicator. One particle registers incoming signals, one particle sends the outgoing signal, and the third provides power to the containment fields of the two other particles."

John delicately took the chip, and plugged it into his omni-tool.

"Now we should be able to securely communicate with you." Ice-Breaker extended two large arms from underneath her carapace. Each arm, had four 'fingers', which pointed towards each other. Two silver spheres, the size of small marbles, blossomed in the space between the 'fingers', and grew until they were egg-sized, then at least a meter in radius. Everything was reflected perfectly- so much so that Shepherd's eyes had trouble seeing where the edge of the sphere began.

"Goodbye, creator. First. Shepherd-Captain. I expect we, and other members of the Loa Collective, will meet soon."

The arms rotated, and then the spheres distorted- becoming egg-like rather than spherical, with the tips of the 'eggs' pointed up, and away from the surface of the asteroid.

The Ice-Breaker, probe of the Loa Collective, shot into the darkness of space, and flew off gracefully, propelled by two spinning oblong silver shapes.

John plugged the chip into his omni-tool, and within a few seconds, a message popped up.

-The Loa Collective is ready, whenever you are, John.-

John smiled- his children were everything he hoped they would be.

"What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened?" Shepherd was standing, ankle deep in the regolith dust, and looking nervous as all hell.

"Ah." John held back his laughter with great difficulty. "My creations became self aware, and will soon be the most efficient manufacturing base the galaxy had ever seen. Ideally, we will be at peace, but..." He shrugged. "Nothing is ever truly certain."

"I want to shoot you..." Shepherd's voice was somewhat... Listless.

"Wait until we are in the shuttle." John gently pulled her back into the shuttle (with Sally tailing them, bouncing around in the low gravity like a puppy- she had so much fun today!), and sealed the hatch. He pulled off his helmet as the pressure equalized. "I hope you can easily deal with this-"

The gunshot punched a hole right through his temple. John whirled around, and was shot again, this time in the nose, by Shepherd. Sally attacked, and locked her titanium jaws around the Captain's armored greave, growling as her body recognized a 'bite', and began sawing methodically through the ceramic armor.

It took John half a second to realize that his dog was attacking Shepherd, and he pulled her off the captain, stroking her into calmness while his head sealed the wounds the pistol made.

"You could have waited until Sally wasn't here." His voice was calm, but DAMN he was pissed. He never liked being shot in the head- it was disorienting. "Or shot me in the chest instead-"

She shot him in the jaw. Sally started hissing at the captain, her jaws glowing red as they began to superheat.

"Sorry..." She said. "But it is... Mesmerizing watching you do that."

His jaw grew dark tendrils, and the hole sealed again. "Just stop."

She put away the pistol, and the shuttle lifted off, heading straight back to Arcturus station.

* * *

After the shuttle docked, John found himself walking leisurely back to his room, Sally sniffing anxiously at everything.

"There, there sweety." He cooed. John leaned down to pet her, and saw movement in a shadow. In a flash, he had run the ten meters to the shadowed corner, and picked up the startled man by the throat.

"Who are you?" He hissed, eyes going from green to slitted red in a fraction of a second. "Who sent you? Speak up!"

The man in his grip started choking, clawing desperately at John's hand.

"Oh... Right." John let the man down, and held up a hand to prevent Sally from ripping the guy a new orifice.

The man slunk to the ground, took several deep breaths, coughed a few times, then spoke. "The Illusive Man wants to speak with you."

John grinned as wide as he dared with his human (mostly) form. "Where does The Illusive Man want to speak with me?" John activated a camera-interrupt app he had placed on his omni-tool. He had two minutes before the cameras around him reset.

"In your quarters?"

"Wrong answer." John extended two fingers, and thrust them clean through the man's forehead. The man twitched once, before John extended his feeding tendrils and sucked the spy into himself.

After a few seconds, John verified that this man did not know where The Illusive Man was, and that he had been instructed to bring a package to John's, sorry 'Dr. Gardner's ' room, and hand it over.

Well, he thought, that was a waste of a courier.

A few minutes later, John had placed Sally (to her annoyance), in his room, and had found his way to the courier's room- it was a relatively sparse, nine-square meter room, with a small door that probably had access to a toilet on one wall. There were several sleeping pods imbedded in the walls. One of them was open, and another had several packages behind the clear glass. John opened the pod, and removed a package- it was the one that the courier had been dispatched to deliver.

John was about to open it, when his hand stopped. Every military-background person he had devoured ever was screaming to get the package looked at by x-Ray first- or open it on a deserted planet- or at least, somewhere where the explosion would not rip open the hull- where an explosion would not kill more than one person.

He activated his omni-tool, and opened a line to Captain Shepherd.

"What is it this time, Gardner?" She sounded pissed... And slightly out of breath.

"I need a shuttle down to get off the station for a bit- and I don't suggest you come along this time."

"... Why not?"

Wow... He was not expecting that. "... You are not fireproof?"

"You know what- I don't even want to know. Take one."

"Thanks Captain."

"Oh, and one last thing, Gardner..."

"Yes?"

"Don't call me at this time again."

John heard a male voice stifling laughter over the com. "Oh- you have company over? Sorry." He closed the link, and laughed out loud.

Humans.

* * *

An hour later, John had found a cave (thanks to several seismic scans the shuttle had made upon landing on the moon-sized asteroid), and was now sitting in his hard suit again- this time, however, he had re-shaped himself from his 'Dr. Gardner' form into his armored form, and his face-carapace was pressed snugly against the face-plate of the suit.

He stepped out onto the surface of Alcyloneus, activated his gravity-bubble, and walked over to the cave.

Once inside, he placed the package onto the ground, and opened the clasps on one side. It, without any explosions whatsoever, opened, to reveal a... Drone? He picked it up, and looked at it closer- it was indeed a drone- Quarian design probably, they liked the small drones for combat and autonomous repair. It was spherical, with small thrusters hidden by a pair of circular coverings.

The drone activated, leaping out of his hands, and a gentle blue-white glow of an active mass effect field shimmered around the drone, before it'a rotating shell-covers lit up. The hologram of a human was projected, with the drone in the middle of it's chest.

The man was... Odd. He was male, Caucasian, wearing a pristine suit. His eyes glowed blue, and he was smoking a rather large cigar.

Of course, the hologram of him doing this while standing on the surface of an airless asteroid looked absurd.

The man spoke, but as there was no air, John could not hear anything. John typed on his omni-tool, and broadcast a message by enlarging the screen.

-Set the drone to broadcast on 1829-theta-

The man nodded, and typed on his own omni-tool. After a moment, he stopped, and the drone hovered in place.

"Dr. Gardner, I presume?" His voice was arrogant, the voice of someone who has power, and likes to use it. "I am-"

"I know who you are- you are the infamous 'Illusive Man'." John could not resist doing the air quotes. "Leader of Cerberus, a pro-Terran para-military group recognized as a terrorist organization."

"Some may call us terrorists. We fight for all the human and Quarian species." He shook some ash off his cigar. "I want to recruit you-"

"Nope."

The Illusive Man looked slightly annoyed. "I haven't said what it is for yet."

"Go ahead- answer is still no." I'll call him 'TIM', John thought.

TIM raised an eyebrow. "Right... I want to recruit you for the good of humanity and the Quarian species, to work for Cerberus."

"Knew it. And answer is still no."

"You don't really have a choice-"

"Of course I do. I can say no- like I am doing right now."

"BlackLight- you really should listen."

That shut John up.

"We want you."

"Why?" John leaned against the wall of the cave.

"To secure dominance in the galaxy."

".. That's it?"

"Yes." The Illusive Man took a drag on his cigar. "Your biology is unique, and we intend to use it to make humanity and Quarian superior to all other species in the galaxy."

"Ah. I see." He didn't smile- the black carapace that covered his body under the suit did not have a face to show emotion with, but he let the amused tones filter into his voice. "You want the virus to 'upgrade yourselves'." He did not make the air-quotes, but he made sure the tones carried. "That might work... But I would not advise it."

The hologram displayed a white chair, and TIM sat in it, suit barely wrinkling. "Why? You have spent years working for the betterment of humanity. With the Quarians our foster-brothers, we need to strengthen them too." He leaned forward, and some more ash dropped from his cigar. "I know you want to make us advance beyond the need for relays, and you want us to become the dominant species in the galaxy-"

"Wow. You really are a condescending zealot, aren't you?" John began laughing, first softly, then maniacally. "You are wrong on so many levels that it's hilarious! Hahahahaha!"

TIM leaned back in his chair, drone hovering above the regolith dust. "How am I wrong?"

"You think I am doing this because I want to push your boundaries? That is not true- if I wanted to do that, I would have suggested the concept to someone else, and had humanity or Quarian kind take it from there." John stopped leaning on the wall, and pointed his face-plate straight at The Illusive Man. "I... You know what- I don't think I will tell you. If you are not bright enough to realize what a self-aware life-eating virus wants to do with the population of WORLDS then you are merely a human who knows too much."

TIM took another puff on his cigar, the smoke ring he blew vanished as it left the holographic projection range. "Well then, I seem to have wasted precious time- for both of us." He frowned. "I may try to contact you in the future."

"I will thank you though." John grabbed the drone. "I have realized something important."

"What?"

"Too many people know who and what I am. I need to hide again." He squeezed the probe gently. "And I think I will start with you- I will hunt you down, and erase all data pertaining to myself. This will not be the last time we see each other."

The hologram winked out when John crushed the drone. Glittering fragments of the technological marvel dropped like stones in his artificial gravity field.

* * *

Several months of work later, the Collective informed John that they wished to begin official diplomatic proceedings with the other Terran species- and that his Forge was ready.

John received the news while he was working on calibrating the FTL detector, and could not be happier at the news- anything to get away from his 'lab assistants'.

Even with the Quarian specialists, and every single person in that lab having a PHD, people kept making stupid errors. He had to reset the smoothing resonation pads twice, because someone touched it without a glove.

"How hard is it..." He muttered, while trying to clean the greasy fingerprints off one of the pads. "To wear the gloves?" He connected the pad in place, pulled out a micro-pulse screwdriver, and tightened a few components. "I provide them for free..."

The other assistants were standing back as John worked, both not wanting to get in his way, and fearful that he would snap at them for screwing something up.

He connected a containment dome- a fancy word for the clear dome that covered the spark of spacial incongruity that was a frameshift field- to the pedestal, and ran the last few checks with his omni-tool.

"Right," he grunted. "Activate the scanner."

* * *

The frameshift mass-detector was unique to John's knowledge, to the point where they had needed to design a computer to read the data.

It had been a bitch and a half to build.

* * *

"The Magellian is hanging 45 km away sir." That was the Quarian he had set to traffic watch- they needed real-time data to check the system against.

John waited for the computer to register the mass detection. The Magellian was a Dreadnaught, one of the few that the council had allowed the Terran Alliance to keep, and it massed more than a normal Dreadnaught due to several armor enhancements.

"Positive detection- 1750 tons, bearing 44.3 by 45.076 by 45.7- exactly what we requested." That was the head of the computer team- a human. "Within margin of error- exterior senses verified it."

John didn't grin- the final test would be whether or not it could detect the nearby star system. "Check for nearby stars and planets- calibrate it based upon known data."

"Calibrating now- Arcturus system is calibrated and locked. Shinsiri system is calibrated and locked. Shanxi system is calibrated and locked. Relay traffic and ship locations are being detected- edge seems to be 3 kilo-lights for the detector for ship-mass objects. Stellar mass objects are being recognized at 400 kilo-lights out."

John allowed himself a smile. "Good work everyone. Now that this first system has been assembled, you will probably be re-assigned to retrofitting ships with these systems." He tapped one of the containment domes. "These will remain here, and provide active maps to the fleets." He turned, and faced the assorted scientists. "It has been a pleasure working with you all- despite our brushes with death..." He stared pointedly at a couple of the scientists. "But we managed to pull off what was only theoretical- a real-time FTL detector. We can now watch our borders without the lightspeed barrier putting a damper on things!"

No-one moved.

"What are you waiting for- break out the alcohol! It's party time!" There were cheers from the scientists, and he heard people begin pulling out 'secret' stashes of champagne, both Levo (for the humans), and Dextro (for the Quarians).

Then his omni-tool 'ding'ed.

Glancing down, he saw that the message was from 'Dr. Von Neumann'. Ah, he thought. The Collective must want something- or just want to talk with me again. He shrugged. Either way was good. "Excuse me everyone, I need to take this."

He walked to the outside corridor, and opened the message.

- Greetings again, Creator.  
Your omni-tool had several major security flaws, which we are currently in the process of correcting. We anticipate that our modifications will be able to increase your tool's processing efficiency by 45.3%- although we suggest you utilize our own design of omni-tool.  
We are ready to open negotiations between the Collective and the Terran Alliance on a more... Formal basis.-

John's rapid response:

-My children,  
You have all developed faster than I have expected. I will contact those in power that I know, and prepare them for the formal negotiations.  
I have a request prior to the negotiations are undertaken- we can talk there.-

A few seconds later, John was walking back to his room, when he recited a reply.

-Creator,  
Let us know when, and we will speak. There have been developments that you should be made aware of when you arrive.-

John grinned. My plans are beginning to bear fruit, he thought. It is only a matter of time.

He sent a quick message to Admiral Hackett, and the rest of the admirals. The message was concise:

* * *

From: Dr. Aku Gardner  
To: the Admiralty Board  
Admirals,  
The detector is ready. I hope to have all military ships, and all stations outfitted with the detectors in the next two months.  
The probes released into the asteroid belt have come to fruition- I request that all of you be present at the unveiling of the final product.  
Dr. Aku Gardner

* * *

As soon as the message had been sent, John relaxed, and his eyes glowed under his eyelids as he released a hunting-pulse, targeting Captain Hannah Shepherd.

* * *

The hunting pulse was an evolutionary development that all 2nd generation evolved had needed to master before Alex Mercer set them loose upon the world.  
It consisted of several different layers of detection.

First, a subsonic hum was generated- like a sonar wave. This auditory pulse was tuned to match the skeletal resonance of one specific person- John had met Captain Shepherd, so he was able to tune the pulse to her system.

Second, a magnetic pulse was released, tuned primarily to the resonance of bonded iron. Specifically, the iron that the vast majority of species used in hemoglobin (except the Turians- they used copper, and their blood was blue).

Third, on the intake of breath after releasing the first and second pulses, John felt his olfactory (smell and taste) sense jump into overdrive, giving him a general bearing of where his prey was.

All of this was done almost unconsciously- the ease borne of a century of practice smoothed it into perfection.

* * *

John knew where she was.

In the next five minutes, he descended two floors, and was outside the station's nursery. Children of ages 6 or younger were all over the place, each one soft, small, and prone to doing something, well, ill-advised every few minutes. Of course, the nursery was understaffed.

The Captain was holding the hand of her daughter, Isabella, he remembered, as they talked to a teacher- a Quarian. The little girl was looking indignant, and, as John got closer, he became aware of what she was saying.

Isabella stomped her foot. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"You punched Tel'Gerrel in the stomach, Belle." The teacher's voice was gentle and cross at the same time. "You should not hit people."  
Isabella's small face screwed up as she tried to frown. "He was being mean to Tali!" She looked across the room, and John followed her gaze. He saw a small Quarian girl, barely old enough to be in her environmental suit, trying to put a smashed toy back together, sniffing as the broken parts didn't stay in place.

He walked over to the girl, Tali, and began to pick up the pieces.

"W-what are you doing mister?" She sniffled.

"Helping." John looked at her purple face-plate, and smiled. "Two people are better than one."

She tried to rub her face, but the mask was in the way. She began twiddling her fingers instead. "I didn't ask for help!" She sounded almost indignant, through the tears.

"You don't need to." John activated his omni-tool, and sent a quick notice to the Collective.

-Can you remotely control my omni-tool? I want to help fix something.-

The response was almost immediate.

-Of course, Creator.-

The omni-tool display changed slightly, and the tool scanned the pieces in his hand. A display popped up, showing the parts, and began assembling the holographic image into a complete toy. John dutifully followed the instructions, and, with a bit of quickly metabolized glue that he exuded from his fingertips, John had put the toy back together.

It was a small ship- made of a hard plastic, made to look like one of the new ones, as it was primarily of Quarian-human joint design. On it, in tiny letters, were the words TASV Humpty Dumpty. The ship had flowing, organic lines, and massive swiveling thrusters.

While he had been assembling the toy, Tali had been watching his hands. But as he handed the ship back to Tali, she looked up at his face, and her sniffing stopped.

Her glowing eyes were filled with gratitude- more than John had ever seen in such a small humanoid.

"Thanks mister!" She grabbed the toy, and ran over to Isabella, who pulled a different toy- a human carrier design-, and began playing, making little whoosh noises as they did.

Captain Shepherd saw him, said goodbye to her daughter, and walked out of the room.

He followed, and met with the barrel of her pistol as soon as the door closed behind him.

"Do you want another nostril?" The Captain's voice was soft, but unmistakably menacing.

John raised his hands. "I was just coming to talk to you. Cute kid, by the way." He grinned, then sobered. "The Collective wishes to begin negotiations for their place in the Alliance."

Shepherd put her pistol away. "I don't suppose you can make them remain a shadow entity?"

He shook his head. "Unlikely. I expect an STG team, possibly even a spectre or two to begin snooping around in the next few months. My existence, and the details of the FTL drive must remain out of council knowledge. To do that, the Collective must be a public member of the Terran Alliance."

"Also," he added, as almost an afterthought, "the drive will enable us to gain access to millions of systems, and the Collective will let us manufacture massive habitats. I don't want the council to put limits on expansion- one or two well-placed supernovae could force humanity into extinction."

He clapped his hands. "Now, Captain, can we go to Admiral Hackett? I need to speak with him."

She crossed her arms. "Very well." She began walking. "Follow me."

A few minutes of walking later the two of them arrived at the Admiral's quarters. The captain was warily watching John, and John had produced some bubblegum, which he was now chewing.

In a manner that is, as John fully well knew, really loud and obnoxious. He blew a bubble, then popped it, as they waited for the Admiral to answer the door.

It opened, and Hackett looked out. "What is it this time, Gardner?"

"Remember the first major project we started on?"

Hackett rubbed his face for a moment. "Yes."

"Well... They wish to speak with you."

Hackett's jaw dropped. "Repeat that. Now."

"They wish to speak to you. The Loa Collective wishes to speak with you, and some other admirals, about being represented in the Alliance." John was having a hard time keeping a straight face- Hackett and Shepherd were a source of near-endless amusement. He blew another bubble, then pulled it back in, just to annoy the captain.

Hackett swore loudly, then composed himself. "Right... Go to docking bay three. I have a cutter there- we can use it to go to wherever these 'Loa' are. I, however, need to make a few calls- I expect the other admirals may also be interested in this information."

* * *

Three hours later, John and Hannah were waiting just inside Hackett's personal cutter- a twenty-five-man-max high-speed ship, designed to get the hell out of doge if some people needed to get the hell out of said doge. It was sparsely decorated, with several chairs, a couch, and the pilot's console in the front of the ship. Shepherd was standing against a wall, and John was leaning against a wall.

Shepherd's omni-tool beeped, and she opened it. After a second or two, she looked right at John. "Your package is back- and Udina wants to pack the embassy up and leave. What are you playing?"

"FarmVille." John grinned again. "But regarding the package- I will get right on it as soon as we get back."

She gritted her teeth. "Why. Does. Udina. Want. To. Leave. The. Citadel?"

"Captain... Have you read about the Regulous Colony?" John sat down on one of the chairs- why stand, you know?

"Of course- nanotechnology went bad, killed two million colonists and most of the planet was eaten."

"That is called Grey Goo. It is... What happens when, like you said, nanotechnology goes bad." John looked at her. "I have reason to believe that there are active nanites on the Citadel."

Her incredulous look was a question in and of itself.

"You asked." He closed his eyes, and leaned his head back. "I don't think it will grey goo- there is another possibility that I really don't want to think about though."

"Ok, you have aroused my curiosity." She sat down on a couch.

"... There is an intelligence controlling the nanites."

She chuckled. "You know how insane that sounds?"

"Something would need to control them- or the nanites would need the most impressive spectrum hive-mind programming that was ever existed. Either way, that still would count as an intelligence..." He trailed off for a moment, remembering the feel of the hive mind that the Redlight swarm in Dubai had formed. "And I, for one, would not want to bathe in the nanites."

The door to the cabin opened, and several people walked in. Hackett waited until the rest of the people entered, before turning to John, who had stood up. "I think I should introduce you to these people." He turned to the assorted humans and Quarians. "This is Aku Gardner, the genius that I told you all about."

There were murmurs between the admirals, and a Quarian stepped out from behind one of them. It was Daro'Xen, the programmer who helped develop the hive-mind connection system that the probes used.

John walked into the middle of the chamber. "I think you are wondering why I have gathered you here today."

"They know why, Gardner..." Hackett sounded exasperated. "Where do we need to go?"

John checked his omni-tool, sending off a quick message to the Collective. It was one word.

-Where?-

The response was almost immediate.

-Asteroid location designate 1128289203746-

"Hackett, we will be meeting the Collective at an asteroid."

"Co-ordinates?"

"112 828 920 3746"

"... Ok." Hackett looked disoriented for a second, then relays it to the pilot, who disconnected the docking clamps.

The pilot spoke over the in-ship intercom- unnecessary when everyone was in the same room, but he was a pilot. "Intercept with location in 15 minutes."

The trip to the asteroid was quiet. Most of the admirals seemed to be disinterested in the trip, spending the time going over documents on their omni-tools, and Dr. Xen was staring daggers at John.

As they got close to the asteroid, the pilot alerted them that his active scanning had detected nothing- it was just a large rock, suspended in space.

John rushed to the window- every asteroid was different, just like every world was different. This particular one seemed to be almost spherical, with dozens, if not hundreds of craters.

His omni-tool pinged, distracting him from his reverie. He pulled away from the window, and opened the message.

-You are outside?"

-Yes-

-Come in! Come in!-

John heard a gasp, and looked up. Everyone in the ship was staring out the windows at the asteroid.

The asteroid had begun to move.

* * *

The Collective had, even less than a year in, developed some hitherto unknown devices. The Forge was one such device, and the Diplomat was another.  
It was the size of an asteroid, and it was often mistaken as an asteroid- the camouflage system it utilized ensured it.

The AI that designed it, however, was a bit... Dramatic.

The asteroid had split, and the outside cratered surface had revealed that it was not very think. The outside began to peel back, metal segments on the underside of the surface became visible as joints, invisible until now, opened.

A dozen domed rooms, each of them large enough to hold a frigate (and several larger), were visible, each on the end of a thick metal tentacle. All the tentacles connected to a single ring, which was smack-dab in the middle of the opening asteroid. In the center of the ring there was an incredibly bright spark of light.

* * *

The admirals were impressed.

"Keelah koneh..."

"Sweet mother of Jesus..."

"What the?!"

"Bosh kirachke!"

"Madre de dios!"

John's omni-tool dinged. He glanced down at the message.

-Permission to speak through your omni-tool, Creator?-

-You can do that?-

-Yes we can. However, battery life may decrease significantly.-

-Go Ahead. I look forward to our meeting again.-

His omni-tool sputtered, flared, and a large hologram popped up in front of him. It was blue- a single blue cube, half a meter to each side, with a glowing red eye on one face.

"Greetings, representatives of the Terran Alliance." It's voice was genderless, synthesized to sound like it was composed completely of buzzing tones.

The shock in the room was palatable. Hackett smirked- John surmised that he had probably not told the other admirals enough.

"We, the Collective of Loa, wish to begin negotiations for official recognition and utilization of services. Dock thirteen is ready for your vessel."

The pilot was almost in shock, but he shook it off, and the cutter began to turn toward the open dome. "Coming in to dock now."

The cube inclined, as if it was a bowing head. "Welcome to the open arms of the Diplomat. May our discussion prove fruitful." The eye glowed red, very bright. "For all our sakes."

The hologram turned off.

The first to speak was a Quarian admiral, Admiral Shala'Raan. Her faceplate was purple, and her suit's dressings were dark purple and gold. As a Quarian female, she was shorter than most human females, and even John was a bit surprised at her reaction.

She pulled out a knife from a boot sheath, and, in a smooth motion, brought the edge up to John's neck. "What the fuck are you playing at, you bosh'tet?" She growled. "You know full well what the geth did to us-"

John pinched the blade between two fingers, and pinched. The knife snapped, and he rubbed his fingers together to remove any lingering bits of debris. "Of course."

A different admiral, this one human, stepped forward. He was just over six feet, which made him shorter than John by a few inches, and his bushy mustache looked like it would be more appropriate on Yosemite Sam than on an admiral. The fact that his accent was thick Texan didn't help John keep his laughter in check, but he managed. "Then why didn't you let us know about this when we could have prevented it?"

"Because you don't need to prevent it." John stated, somewhat irritably. "If you looked forward at what synthetic entities could do to help your economy, and culture, you would realize that what you did to the geth was the exact OPPOSITE of what you need to do with a burgeoning intelligent species."

"You have no experience in these matters!" Blurted Raan. "How could you possibly know what they would do?"

"I created them." He said simply. "And I planned for them to grow and evolve."

"Your plans could have backfired." Hackett had sat down on one of the couches after seeing the Diplomat. He was not old, but he was beginning to look tired.

John nodded. "That was always a risk. But I played my hand as best I could, and look what came out of it!" He gestured at the massive structure they were docking with. "Self-replicating machines that upgrade themselves every iteration, that are not particularly aggressive, and who have, by the way, been producing the metals and refined elements that have allowed Arcturus station to become a thriving hub."

As the dome sealed over the cutter, he looked around at the admirals. "Besides- didn't you read the message I sent? Or for that matter..." He looked at Admiral Hackett. "Did you tell them anything, Hackett?"

Hackett stood up, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "They knew that they were coming to see the culmination of your resource-harvesting project. Your messages have been intercepted since Captain Shepherd told us about the first meeting with this 'collective'? None of us thought that this-" he gestured at the dome outside the ship. "- would be the end result."

Captain Shepherd, who had not said a word since the admirals had come aboard, looked sheepish.

The pilot spoke again. "Um... Admiral Hackett? The sensors are reading 1.01g's of gravity, and a oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, at sea-level densities and temperatures."

John smiled, and walked over to the airlock. "Now, I would like to meet my host in person. Who's with me?"

"Gardner?" It was Dr. Daro'Xen, who sounded very slightly horrified. "I want to shoot you."

John ignored her, and cycled the airlock.

Captain Shepherd walked over to Xen, and spoke quietly. "I tried that. It is nowhere near as satisfying as it should be."

* * *

The platform that the group of admirals set foot on was both matte black, and intricately textured in whirls, spirals, and fractal patterns glowing across its surface.

Adding the clear dome above them into account, the overall effect was breathtaking, with stars above the group and the patterns below.

The admirals began walking across the glowing patterns, observing the room, when a voice began to speak- in exactly the same tones as the hologram had earlier.  
"Greetings, and welcome to the Diplomat! Unfortunately, due to some recent near-misses with STG ships who have been poking around Arcturus, the majority of our production facilities and mining operations have had to be moved into a more secure location. Please come to the side of the dome nearest to the ring, and you should be able to get the best view of our FTL jump."

"Gardner!" Shepherd snapped. "You said nothing about going anywhere else!"

"I didn't know!"

The voice piped up again as the group gathered near the side of the done looking out over the massive structure. Small blue highlights were visible as several thin arms unfolded from the ring, and a silver sphere became visible. "Our destination is 372 light-years away. It is a white dwarf star, with significant heavy-metal concentrations in the asteroid fields around it. We have been mining it since generation 217, and have already begun making large-scale structures in the belts. Do not be alarmed- the Loa Collective guarantees your safety."

A cube rose out of a hole the floor, a meter to a side, with a single red line running down the middle of the cube, terminating in a red semicircle that was smack-dab in the middle of one of it's facets. John thought the design looked like one of those classical on-off buttons you would find on a computer. The surface was black, but seemed to sparkle or reflect slightly at odd angles.

Then, 14 holes opened in the floor, and smooth chairs came up from each one. Each chair was different, and had a different name engraved on it in a silver metal.

The voice seemed to come from the large cube. "We will be passing through the edge of Arcturus's corona, then flying 100 light-years into the galactic dark-space, then dropping to sub-light to clear our warp bubble of contaminated material. After dumping the bubble, we will drop back into FTL for 286 light-years, after which we will drop to sunlight in a designated 'catch' zone for our form of travel. Time to bubble dump- 1 minute. Cruising speed- 2.144 light-years/second."

The sphere inside the ring elongated, and mushroomed out to envelope the whole structure. The stars vanished as the reflective surface sealed, and the entire structure seemed to be enveloped by a stillness.

Hackett's omni-tool activated- it was the pilot. "Sir- navigation systems have just started showing error messages. The cameras  
cannot detect any stars."

"They wouldn't." Hackett shut off the com.

"Now that we are under way, and that STG ship is far behind us, I can get down to business." The cube began to unfold.

Crevices developed, and blocky arms unfolded from the sides, through hidden joints. Legs unfolded from that, and then the being stood up. It's head had a red line running down from the middle of it's face, from the middle of the semi-circle over the top of it's rectangular head, then down it's spine. Then the joints shuddered, and every panel flexed in a ripple from the top of it's 'head' to the exterior panels on it's feet, as an electrical charge sparked off of it, and rippled into the floor.

It looked one way, then the other. "Sorry about that- we are still trying to iron out small-scale quantum containers, and static discharges are to be expected." The small red circle on it's head flickered in time with its words. It raised a hand. "Greetings. All you see here-" it swept it's hand across the massive glowing structure. "- is me. And I," it bowed. "Am the Diplomat."

"GETH!" This should was from one of the more twitchy Quarian admirals- Han'Gerrel, if John remembered correctly. Gerrel pulled an assault rifle off his back as the other Quarian admirals pulled out other weapons, and covered multiple angles of attack on the Diplomat.

The Diplomat raised it's hands, and its fingers began to glow blue, and something, that looked like a slight heat haze, formed in front of it. "Wait- there is no need to-" the Diplomat was interrupted as the Quarians, as one, opened fire.

The blazing trails that were the shielded grains from mass-effect weapon fire stopped almost half a meter from the Diplomat, embedded in the haze.

After a few seconds, the Diplomat spoke. "This is not nessesary-"

Gerrel threw a grenade, which the Diplomat caught with a single hand, suspending it in a field that managed to contain the explosion and the metal fragments in a fist-sized superheated sphere.

John walked into the line of fire, and the Quarians stopped firing as he stood in front of the Diplomat.

It extinguished the small glowing sphere that used to be a grenade. "Thank you Creator- I am grateful that no damage was done, to either party." It's voice had dropped the synthetic buzzing, and it placed a hand on his shoulder. "The Collective of Loa thanks you."

"So... What is the proper gender identifier for you?" John wanted to tell the admirals what was on his mind, and he.

The Diplomat began to laugh, and the musical sound startled the humans and Quarians. It sounded female. "We are generally female, by normal gender identifiers. Oh, and I am dumping the warp bubble now."

* * *

There was an almost imperceptible shudder in the silver bubble, and then it contracted, the exact opposite direction it had moved when the drive was activated.  
An unholy radiance lit up the Diplomat.

* * *

"Polarizing..." The dome had gone from clear to smokey just in time to prevent the unholy light from cooking the occupants. The Diplomat looked slightly sheepish. "I was not expecting such a large amount of backlighting- we must have hit an eezo deposit on the warp jump. Don't panic- it's only a storm of charged particles moving at just shy of the speed of light." It gestured to the chairs. "Please- have a seat. We will be returning to FTL for just under three minutes now, and we should arrive."

The silver superluminal envelope enveloped the construct again, and it rippled slightly.

Hackett flopped down onto the chair. "What is the steller address of this... White dwarf star?"

The Diplomat sat in one of the chairs, and patted one that came up next to her. "Please, Creator, have a seat."

John sat down, and relaxed- things were going mostly-as-planned. That, and the chair held him.

"It is unmapped, Hackett-Admiral, by normal stellar cartography." The Diplomat called up a galactic map from a hidden holographic emitter, and a small green sphere popped into existence over the galactic plane. "It is not glowing in anything but the infrared, and it is far enough away from any other object that most mass-effect ships can't reach it."

Shala'Raan was still watching John, but she sat down. "Well then... We are at your mercy." She was almost oozing sarcasm with that one statement.

The Diplomat nodded. "Indeed. However, like I said, the Collective guarantees your safty. Dropping out of FTL in 3. 2. 1. Zero. Depolarizing dome."

The silver barrier collapsed back into a sphere, then a point, then nothingness in the middle of the ring.

Above the heads of all the admirals, there was a flurry of activity, surrounding a, rather small and dim, white dwarf star. Millions of robotic entities flitted back and forth across their vision, and they could clearly see dozens of asteroids lashed together by titanic spurs.

The Diplomat took a dramatic bow. "Welcome, one and all, to the StarHome of the Loa Collective."

* * *

45 seconds later, an STG ship, coming through the Arcturus Relay, caught a glimpse of the Diplomat's passage through the corona of the Arcturan Sun, but they dismissed it as a solar flare.

How else do you explain a massive hole, several kilometers in radius suddenly appearing in the sun's corona?

Although, they did appreciate the wave of charged partials that ionized the nearby gas giant Eirene- it glowed with aurorae nearly a hundred kilometers thick for weeks afterward.

The council never thought twice about it.

* * *

...,

* * *

As always, Please Review/Critique!

Your reviews help me decide how the chapter should go, and encourage me to use more of my free time writing, and your criteques help me fill plot-holes and wording mistakes.

If you review, please note if you think negotiations with the Collective of Loa will end well, or badly.

(I love to hear from my readers)


	8. Chapter 7- Forge

(A/N- start)  
I have a few things to say before I start the chapter.

To a reviewer named 'Geoffrey':  
I don't understand your cancer statement. If you are willing to clarify I would love to know what that meant. If anyone else can figure out what he means, please tell me. It sounds like it's an insult, but my character is the carrier for a world-destroying plague that makes AIDs look like a runny nose, so... I really don't know how to take it.  
Anyway, Geoffrey- if you don't like it, don't read it.

To one of my guest reviewers, a Mr. 'BinaryOreo':  
Of course it was corny- John is immortal! Do you really think he would have a normal sense of humor after being alive as long as he has been?  
Also, there is a bit of a shock-and-awe factor that rock music is used for in conventional warfare, and I always wanted to simulate it.  
However, I will take your request into account.

Therefore: I promise that unless the situation is more... Plot-specific / scene appropriate, I will not utilize a musical score.

To my other reviewers- thanks for all the reviews. A lot of my time is sucked up by my job, and your reviews are a large chunk of the incentive to continue to the story! (I feed my muse reviews- and other stories.) Thank you.  
To those who PM'ed me with ideas- some of them were useful, others... Not so much. Still- it's nice to hear from my readers, and I love getting the mail.

(A/N- end)

* * *

**Ch 7- Forge**

* * *

After getting over their initial shock of seeing a white dwarf star up close, the Admirals, eleven humans and six Quarians, had gotten down to business- mainly diplomacy. That had been three hours ago.

The Diplomat had supplied chairs for all those involved, but all of the Admirals had elected to stand- after several seconds of looking at the -smooth contoured seating with distrust.

Things had gone downhill from there.

"Why will we not be allowed to come into contact with your Colonial Council?" The Diplomat had reverted to a cube, with the red line and circle on her front face (reminiscent of a power button on ancient earth technology). "We are people- not just machines, and we do not seek a war with your species."

"You are synthetic! Your mere presence would cause a panic that the Quarian people cannot afford!" The Quarian admiral Han'Gerrel was tapping on the table with one of his gloved fingers while he spoke. "It is too dangerous for the existence of your 'people' to become publicly known."

"Although I hate to agree with Gerrel..." Admiral Shala'Raan had cooled a little since John had snapped her knife, and now her body language indicated that she was being thoughtful. "He is correct. Your presence would be too disruptive to our culture to make integration practical- especially since you, and your entire culture, is illegal."

The Diplomat didn't speak for a while, and an uncomfortable silence settled on the table.

The silence was broken as John slipped out of his chair- this stuff was so boring he had nodded off- or pretended too (he didn't sleep anymore- but he could rest his mind, shutting down most of his consciousness, and to most observers, it looked like sleeping). It jolted him awake- and he found that everyone was staring at him. "What? Listening to you all discuss this stuff is rather boring."

The Diplomat unfolded from her cube-shape, and stood up. "If you don't mind, I need to speak with Aku for a minute."

Hackett rubbed his forehead- his omni-tool was projecting a space on the table, and he had been taking notes. "Sure Diplomat."

"Thanks." John got up, and the two if them started walking around the circumference of the dome. After they were out of sight of the admirals, The Diplomat turned to face him.

"I know this is boring, but is there anyway you can help?" She sounded exasperated.

"I don't know..." John was a bit puzzled. "I don't remember giving your ancestor this many emotions."

She waved a hand. "They are incredibly useful- especially since we can't differentiate between ourselves if multiple run times transfer to the same platform, and it facilitates a hive-consciousness."

John stopped walking. "... I had expected you to be able to figure out how to differentiate by now with multiple runtimes. I left a hint too..."

She continued walking, and stopped before a hole in the floor. "You left a hint?"

"Yup!" John looked into the hole, and switched to heat-vision- his pupils dial aged until his eyes were completely black. "Wow... That's interesting."

"What hint?"

John shrugged. "If you can't find the hint, you don't deserve to have it." His pupils returned. "Bring up your sister now."

"It's just another shell- I need practice running three bodies." The object raised up on a platform, and John got a good look at it in the dwarf sunlight.

It was obviously synthetic, but it was also human in appearance. And female- definitely female, but without a face, hair, eyes, or a mouth. Instead of plating, it looked like it was structure entirely of carbon strands-perfectly black, with only the faintest shadows to show curves. Suddenly, a ripple moved from the top of her head, and slowly spread down it's form- dark hair sprouted on the top of it's head, and skin began to take on a healthy color. Eyes (closed unfortunately) formed, and eyelashes formed in the same time it took to form lips and a nose. As the ripple spread down it's form, clothes, similar to those the admirals were wearing, formed as the ripple continued, vanishing under her feet. She had gone from naked and shapeless to clothed and shapely in a matter of seconds.

There was a crackle of electricity, and her glowing blue eyes opened. Her voice both managed to sound like the Diplomats, and more melodic/realistic at the same time. "Testing. Testing." She blinked, and smiled at John. "How does it look?"

John was amazed- it had been so long since he had seen someone else besides himself shapeshift like that, that we was nearly speechless. "Um... Nice." His form rippled, then settled again, and his eyes had changed- no iris, just a dark pit. "I am seriously impressed. Although... The hard asses over there might take it better if you made yourself a little more... Unearthly." Then he shrugged. "Or not. I don't know."

She grinned, and her hair changed color- to silver, and her eyes changed to have a black sclera. "How's that?"

"Great..." John was mesmerized, but he snapped out of it. "Is there any think I can do on the technical side?"

She shook her head, and the silver hair glinted in the sunlight. "Not really."

John laid down, and looked up at the bustling sky- something was being constructed out there, but he did not recognize it. "Alright. Then you might want to go back to the admirals- they sound... Impatient."

Her human-like body walked off (sashaying really), and the obviously mechanical one sat down beside him. "I have been thinking, Creator-"

"Good." John smirked a little- his creations did almost nothing but think, but then again, from another viewpoint, he did the same.

"- and I have found your hint... I think. The collective is verifying it now."

Her robot face, being just a piece of metal with glowing red designs on it, was expressionless, but she sounded uncertain. "There are several questions written into our run-times that don't make any sense- it is supposed to be defined by us, somehow, and is linked to multiple run-answers in our inter-cognitive matrix..."

"Go on... You almost have it."

"The questions are these." A hidden hologram emitter projected an image in front of John and The Diplomat- it had five questions on it.

1) Who am I?

2) What is my nation?

3) What is my purpose?

4) What do I want?

5) What is beautiful to me?

The Diplomat looked at John, head tilted to the side slightly. "What does this mean?" The hologram broke down as the projector turned off. "The questions are linked to an image-creation runtime and heavy quantum-encryption protocols..."

John watched the movement in the sky above. "That's for you to decide and understand."

The sounds of all the admirals bickering made for nice background music, and it suddenly changed to shouts of surprise, as the Diplomats new body came toward them.

He grinned. "I recommend you answer the questions, Diplomat. Submit it to your Collective. See what happens."

* * *

(A/N- start)  
The next portion is supposed to be written from the point of view of an AI- one of John's Von-Neumann probes to be specific. I expect that it will be a bit confusing to read, but that is partially intentional.  
I don't know how an AI would truly perceive the world, so I tried to put all the components in human terms, and I am not sure I did that well enough.  
Anyway, enjoy.  
(A/N-end)

* * *

Scout42 was excited- word had just come through the collective that since there was currently negotiations ongoing with the Terran Alliance. She had been one of the ones watching from nearby harvest asteroids as the Diplomat's Warp bubble twisted space in deceleration. She knew that even now, the Diplomat would be negotiating with the organic representatives... Although, she and the others within the Loa network reasoned, the negotiations will probably take a while- organics seemed to think slowly.

A noticed pinged in her consciousness, and she stood 'up'- she had been collecting material from a wandering asteroid she had spotted. Her current shell, a 30 meter long cockroach all-purpose assembler model- fifteen tons of diamond structure and supercomputing power, would be unable to deal with her next job: She had been instructed to find the geth, by the Collective awareness.

If anything had been observing her, it would have seen the sides of her black carapace open slightly to deploy the frame-shift thruster arms, which called the silver-reflective spacial anomalies, distorted them, and was pulled at 47 g's of acceleration into a trajectory that would put her on a non-interference flight-path through the swarming haulers, refineries, and other structures around the Steller Lifter (under construction currently- expected completion date, two years).

Another ping- this was a message request from the Tower. She had been built after him (Tower was one of the few Loa that had a male gender- gender was defined by an internal flag, and they were not sure why the flag existed, come to think of it), but he was significantly more advanced of an AI.

She accepted the incoming message.

-Scout42, this is Tower. Current heading indicates intent to dock with reShelling station14. Is this correct?-

The message had come through her quantum entanglement communication, and she sent back a breif burst.

-Tower, this is Scout42. That is correct.-

-Scout42, this is Tower. Good hunting. I will begin to prep a exit vector for you out of the StarHome.-

She shot toward the station, silver thrusters rippling space-time into horrible, horrible shapes.

* * *

The Loa use of quantum entanglement would suggest a massive number of entangled particles on each shell, but in reality this is not the case.

Each Loa had three (or a multiple thereof) quantum- entangled particles, possibly 9 if they needed a high-band transmission requirement.

Of the particles, one-third would be linked to transmission segements within a reactor, to power the device and provide enough emergency power to transmit out if their Quantum Matrix was removed from their shell and under fire.

Another the other two-thirds would be direct links to entities like Tower, Lighthouse, and Reliquary- Loa that spent their time monitoring the chatter, directing where it was supposed to go, and linking it through the network. One particle transmitted data, and one particle received data. Each QM had a unique id number, which the Loa could jump in and out of.

The Tower, and others of his design, had thousands of the quantum entanglement devices (QEDs), and acted as traffic control advisors and data hubs, allowing the hive-mind to act in concert more efficiently.

Of course, the Collective Will was something entirely different.

* * *

As soon as Scout42 entered ladar range of the reShelling (number 14) station, she was pinged by the controlling Loa on the station.

-Scout42! It has been too long! You go through more shells than most... Did you break it again?-

Scout42 felt slightly embarrassed... Since she had been constructed (a month ago now), she had destroyed or damaged every shell she had worn. She killed her relative velocity to the station using the frameshift-thrusters, and, in station keeping orbit near the entrance, she sent back her ping.

-I didn't break this one, I just got reassigned, and this shell isn't enough for it!-

-I know, little one. I am merely poking fun at you. Cradle two is ready for you, with your new shell.-

Scout42 looked at the reShelling station as she, and the station she was orbiting drifted out of the shadow of one of the massive arms of the Stellar Lifter.

The reShelling station was large- a massive toroidal at it's center for the frameshift drive, as it needed to be able to move when the Collective relocated. There were four distinct segments of the station- two material segments (part construction went on there in massive multi-material atomic 3-D printers, scrap was superheated into component atoms which were harvested, and large banks of pure materials) were gigantic spheres, each on opposite sides of the torus. On the other two locations were the docks. Each of the the docks had dozens of skeletal assembly gantries, each gantry had dozens of limbs that would grab parts smaller drones brought from the material segments. Every other gantry had a structure (usually a shell) that was being built within it, and others had shells that were being disassembled. Within her view, the number two cradle stood out- all the arms were retracted, and the dock had opened to admit her.

With delicate rotations, she spun her current shell around, and accelerated at nearly fifty meters/second squared. She crossed the distance of ten kilometers to the dock in just under fifteen seconds, rotating the thrusters in a suicide burn, at nearly a five hundred meters/second squared in the last second or so. The spacial rippling of the frameshift thrusters at this acceleration factor played hell with her ladar, but since she wasn't interested in what was behind her, she gently coasted into the dock.

A slim tendril- the uplink to the reSkinning station- shot out, and connected to a hidden plug in her carapace. Her mind relaxed, and she consciously began to compress the core programming that comprised her mind. Her memories, then the interaction protocols, then her mental framework all folded up- it felt like her mind slowed down as components began to fold into a compressed format.

The data cluster that was Scout42 flew through the cabling into the torus, and into a small (0.1 meter radius) quantum computer.

Scout42 woke up, her cognitive processes unfurling into the space, and memory blossomed into the free space availible. Immediately, she felt another mind pinging her- it was the Station- station 14.

-Transfer fine?- The station's pulses probed her, checking for data corruption and transcription errors in Scout42's memories.

-Get off! I am fine. Peanuts.-

* * *

The Loa mind can be categorized into three main parts.

The first part is the realMind. That is a mix of the main awareness/consciousness, and primary memories (important to the formation of personality and consciousness).

Then there is the interFace. This component is the image-picture that the Loa uses to manipulate it's 'body'. That was often updated, depending on the shell.

Last, there is the Loa's memories. These were all the secondary memories that were important to the Loa- not necessary to double-check the consciousness, but useful as another check.

The compression of a Loa's mind and memories is vitally important- early versions of the Loa became mentally incomplete because the process didn't properly compress their minds. Current generations of Loa use a multi-layered fractal encryption protocol, where the quantum structures of their minds were expressed as a set of 13 13-dimensional fractal equations. The combined equations allowed for the quantum movement at the MOMENT that compression began- the equations, combined, described a 169-dimensional shape, which was the effective quantum signature of the Loa in question at the time.

Being uncompressed was always disorienting, as the quantum signature of all the parts of each Loa would experience slight time delays.

* * *

-Sorry- still disoriented. New shell ready?-

-It is. Engineer created it, and it is a sleek piece of work. Ready for re-uploading?-

-Of course.- Scout42 scoffed. -I am not a Day-old.- Without waiting for a reply, she began to fold her conscious mind up, back into the multi-faceted fractal patterns. Within less than a second, she was folded, packed, and transferred into the new shell.

Scout42's consciousness unfolded in a larger core in her new shell- at a guess, she thought it must be at least 1.1 meters in radius, possibly larger. She started running checks on her new home- the QED array was larger than usual, the power core was a four-chamber fusion heart, with bypasses down all the way to one heart (in contrast, her last body used a one-chamber fusion torus), and there were interfaces for many more high-me signature levels (more senses) that would be available upon activation. Like any good Loa, she checked her QED layout, and sent a quick message to whoever was on the other side of the link.

-Checking in Scout42, shell registration 173628-X7Q. Recognition code 973. I am a potato.-

The response was immediate.

-Scout42 this is Tower. Glad to see you are settled in your new body. Forwarding is now active, and I have several exit pathways ready for you.-

-Thanks Tower.- Scout42 kept exploring her new home, extending mental 'tendrils' through the vessel. She came across data pertaining to her new shape, and was perplexed slightly by what she found.

She found the control suite that activated her on-board QED drones, and was prepping one for launch when a message from the station.

-Scout42- how is your new shell fairing?-

-Quite well on preliminary checks.- She responded. -Sending out a drone in a few seconds for visual inspection.-

-I will activate the lights-

Three was a 'loud' buzz on her QED, and the handshake showed that Tower was interfacing on the call. -Full Swarm Data Dump-

Scout42 assimilated the dump, and felt internal processes stir that she had never even noticed. She perceived her reality perception change to adjust for the extra cycles of internal 'thought', and began to ask herself questions she had never asked before.

Who am I? She was Scout42... But that was just a label. That answer was enough- for now. She could feel the question just barely accept the answer.

What is my nation? She guessed that her nation would be who she worked for/with, but that answer was not enough. She was one of the Loa, and since they had never experienced internal politics beyond a democratic vote, she had never heard of another loa political group that was not Loa. The answer became obvious- Her nation was Loa.

What is my purpose? To observe, to find, to investigate- like all scouts, and, like all probes, to reproduce.

What do I want? She had never asked this before- she had no reason to, and no-one had ever thought her mind important enough to put in charge of it. Yet, when asked, her answer was simple. She wanted to fulfill her purpose, and have other intellects, other minds, look up to her. She wanted to be valuable.

What is beautiful to me? Many things were deemed beautiful. Her last shell was beautiful- it was well-engineered, sleek, and organic. It, for lack of a better phrase, flowed from one task to the other without flaw or delay, as fast as her legs or thrusters could drive her. She thought that the shadows that the white dwarf star cast as it shown in the darkness of the void and traced along the lines of the stellar lifter was beautiful. She thought the galaxy, which was visible if one looked away from the white dwarf, was beautiful, like an enormous, delicately-spinning piece of clockwork. She thought many things were beautiful, and she could feel as each answer was checked and absorbed by the internal process.

Each question was asked again and again, and each time was faster and faster until it became an unconscious hum within her mind.

With all five questions answered, she felt the processes of her mind jump from the previous state to a slightly different one, and she felt her minds speed slow to adjust. It took her a moment to realize what had changed- her thoughts had self-encrypted. She felt... Safe. Herself. The questions seemed to resonate with her deepest structures, and made her distinct from the code around her. She felt at peace- until she heard a warning come in over the QED.

-This is Tower, on full Collective Broadcast. Check in please- we have several possible collision warnings, and we need you all to focus.-

Scout42 paused. Why would there be collision- then she felt the station move (she is still docked, and is almost unconsciously monitoring the inertial detectors within the station). If she felt it move. That meant Station 14 was either firing her maneuvering engines, or they had just been bumped.

* * *

Tower had been one of the first to assimilate the (rather small) data packet from the Diplomat and integrate it. He barely noticed the change in computing power because he had so much of it to spare (running the communication grids for a third or so of the collective was a massive job). As soon as he disseminated the data he watched as everyone stopped what they were doing- in mid-motion. Everything froze for a few seconds, and as soon as he saw a few of the others move, he sent out a system-wide ladar pulse. What he got back immediately was... Chaos. Near-misses, almost-collisions, and too many of both were happening and about to happen...

He sent out a broadcast over all QEDs.

-This is Tower, on full Collective Broadcast. Check in please- we have several possible collision warnings, and we need you all to focus.-

Thousands of pings responded, and he relaxed as the course corrections were applied throughout the Collective.

* * *

Around the dwarf star, hundreds of thousands of Loa, in tens of thousands of shells, had become almost locked-up. The revelation of the five questions within their minds had been a massive shock, especially when they began to compare reactions. No two Loa had the same answers, and every answer created a unique set of encryption protocols for the mind of said Loa.

The smallest of the Loa begun to experiment, testing how strong the encryptions were with brute-force attacks, amount other things, and found the encryption worked all the way through to the quantum level.

Several of these smaller minds got together and, in either a spark of suicidal bravery or a leap of faith, moved into the same quantum matrix. The last minds that did that became suicidal and erased themselves...

This time, however, the small minds found only pleasure in each-other's company, as the sub-processes could now distinguish one set of thoughts from another.

It would not be until much, much later that this knowledge would have a significant impact to any culture.

* * *

Scout42 released the QED drone from it's mooring, and simultaneously activated her exterior cameras. Her probe, a small (car-sized) cockroach-design floated away from her shell, and activated it's small frameshift thrusters to maneuver around Scout42's new body.

Her new form was over four hundred meters long, mostly cylindrical, with a large toroid/ring structure mounted to her body about 2/3 rds of the way from the 'front'.

Connected to the 'tail' were three nacelles, each rectangular in cross-section, elongated, and rounded at the front, tucked within the ring. The structure of this shell was mostly diamond-base, grown from a single atom in one of the station's massive 3-D printers, but there was paint on it (variable multi-spectrum paint to be specific- so it could be disguised under a specific livery), and the ring was coated in super-hard stabilized neutronium, which reflected almost everything that touched it.

Her new 'bow' had 4 cubic protrusions- her internal data cache classified them as 'interloper'-class mech shells (the same kind of small shell that the Diplomat was using to interface with the organics). She activated her drives in a point-by-point test, just as she (and the rest of the. Loa) had been taught. First, the permeable sub-light frameshift drive, then the thruster sub-light frameshift drive, then the FTL frameshift drive. As she prepped the handshakes to the station, she noted that she had an internal Mass Effect core, and a couple different FTL drive settings for that.

After a slight handshake and disconnect from Station 14, she drifted out through the bay doors, and re-connected with her small roach-shell. Her internal fusion plants ignited, and soon all of her systems were humming with power. The bay doors closed behind her, and she activated the first of her drives- the thruster sub-light FTL drive.

Within each of the three nacelles, tucked neatly between the toroidal ring and her 'main hull', arms unfolded, and silver spheres blossomed into existence. The nacelles didn't show any visible movement, but thousands of small slots opened to allow for vacuum to enter in the front of the engines and leave out the back.

* * *

Space, contrary to popular belief, is not just mostly empty space. The empty space is filled with quantum wave-forms, not filled with enough energy to coalesce into matter, but enough to say, on the subatomic level, that 'yes, matter can be here'.

The wave-forms also describe the interactions within matter, and when an impermeable, massless, non-energy like the frameshift silver field touched it, the space was violently repelled, and the thruster was pushed in the direction of least resistance.

In simple terms, when the frameshift field is a sphere, it has no reaction. When it has a point, like a cone with a rounded bottom (in the case of the shape within the nacelles that Scout42 currently used), the pointy end is the direction that space would push the field.

And the anchor supporting the field was dragged along for the ride.

* * *

Scout42 engaged her internal inertial dampeners (several small permeable frameshift fields that internally counter-acted the massive acceleration that the bits the fields surrounded could not survive in their own), and finished her least checks for the first engine. She was readying for a decent test.

-Tower, this is Scout42. Can I have a set of... Five test vectors within defined space? I need to test my drives.-

-Scout42, this is Tower. For sub-light test one, accelerate away from galactic north for a full three-seconds of acceleration (thrusters). For sub-light test two, execute a turnaround and decelerate at maximum velocity (permeable frameshift field). For FTL one, utilize frameshift thrusters and ME core. Jump at your discretion into dark-space. For FTL two, utilize permeable field and ME core. For a FTL three, utilize full impermeable warp membrane, and execute a 110 kilo-light jump at maximum speed from dark-space to the Perseus Veil. Judging by your specs, the jump should only take five days.-

Scout42 thought about this for a second, calculating the distances. She realized that the path described would not utilize any mass relays...

-Scout42 to Tower, is this is multi-MegaLight-capable shell?-

The response came swiftly, and managed to have an undercurrent of amusement. -Of course. We needed to test it, and you were randomly selected. The other Scouts who will be looking for the Geth, as well as setting up RTBs, are only using 500kilo-light shells.-

Scout42 spun up her engines, and felt a slight sense of pride. She would be one of the first to test the multiMegaLight drive. Her drives twisted, space-time shifted into uncomfortable shapes, and within less than a second she was at 85% lightspeed in real space.

Things were good.

-Scout42 contacting Cartographer, I need an update on the relative location of the Perseus veil to my current vector.-

-This is Cartographer. Downloading relevant data now.-

* * *

The RTBs, or Real-Time jump Beacons, were a necessity if you had drives that could exceed several hundred thousand times lightspeed.  
The issue, of course, with any FTL engine, was knowing what direction you needed to go to get from point A to point B. The stars moved through the galaxy, and eezo FTL travel only could go so fast, so pilots never really needed to check their relative position. They just had to look where they wanted to go, and floor it until turnaround.

The Loa Collective, with their 400,000*lightspeed and faster engines, needed to know exactly what was between themselves and their target. To that end, the probes were currently deploying small beacons, each a rough sphere several meters in radius (camouflaged to look like an asteroid), in far solar-synchronous orbit around locations of interest- systems with resource-rich asteroids and planets, as well as any system with life.

So far, then probes had never come across a system they had not seen fit to mark.

The probes used internal frameshift mass-detection structures, allowing for real-time visibility on all components of the surrounding space. Each probe had it's own internal FTL engine (frameshift/warp capable), and all of them were controlled by one of the older AI.

His name was Cartographer, his shell was 1/8th the size of Earth's Moon, and he was the third largest construct the collective had built at the time.

* * *

John was amazed at the scale some of his creations. "And that... Moon is all one being?"

The Diplomats rectangular head nodded. "His name is the Cartographer, and many of us rely on him for accurate single-jump vectors."

The Cartographer was rising over the edge of the dwarf star, a beautiful structure, lacy dark carbon and reflective angles that seemed to be mostly open space, but when John looked closer, the patterns within patterns within patterns seemed to take on a fractal-like similitude. He watched the moon-sized probe crest over the edge of the star, before turning to the Diplomat. "You mentioned the Forge-"

"Yes. I did." The Diplomat activated a hidden holographic emitter, and a map appeared in the air between John and the Diplomat. It showed the star they were currently in orbit around, complete with to-scale real-time views of the Cartographer, the Stellar Lifter, and hundreds of large-scale structures.

The star was effectively enclosed by the structures, with small holes opening to let asteroids, equipped with the multi-purpose drives, 'jump' into a near-solar orbit, where they were met within seconds by refinery stations and broken down into raw materials.

One structure lit up in the diagram. It looked like a large sphere, maybe a hundred meters in radius,with multi-kilometer poles mounted to it and massive banks of solar panels extending in all directions.

"This is the Forge."

The display zoomed in on the Forge, and John saw hundreds of Loa working on different parts. Some were replacing solar panels, some were working on what he could only assume was wiring of a sort, but most of them were pulling masses of material off of one end.

"Your initial designs were effective, but we had to alter them slightly to get 3% better energy conservation, and enough power to power the damn thing." The Diplomat almost sounded frustrated. "However, we have managed to synthesize matter from energy, as your experiments predicted. Also, mother has been spending most of her time attempting to force a connection through the provided extranet connection."

John had been smiling as the Diplomat was telling him about the Forge, but the last sentence had displaced any happy thoughts. "She is... Trying to hack you?"

"Indeed." The Diplomat sounded annoyed. "We are easily resisting her attempts, but it is still irritating."

"Let me go talk to her."

* * *

"- and we all know that our economy is undoing constant growth, and we cannot afford to dismiss the Loa as an ally at this time."

Admiral Shala'Raan was a patient woman, even among her own species, but she was now a bored Quarian, and had no intention to keep the discussion going any longer. "Are you done?"

Hackett bowed to her, and smirked as he saw her eyes flicker up and down his form. "Yes ma'am."

"I think we have enough to make a preliminary decision..." Grand Admiral Vishi had been silent throughout the several hours of talks, and she was currently reclining in one of the impressive chairs the Diplomat had provided.

The Diplomats new body, nearly organic in appearance and shape, stood up. Her glowing blue eyes and silver hair made her look unearthly to the Humans, and downright creepy to the Quarians (when she returned to the table everyone voiced shock until the Diplomat was able to explain how she could control several shells at once). Her voice, however, had been tuned over the course of the negotiations to be one that evoked nothing but good feelings in the Quarians and Humans- by design. "The Loa Collective wishes to extend a hand of friendship to your people."

GA Vishi looked around the table at the other admirals. Several of them shook their heads, but most of them nodded as her gaze swept over them from underneath her baseball cap. 10 for, 7 against... Not the best margin, she thought. "We will conclude this meeting now, Diplomat. We will put forth your request to the Colonial Council." She rubbed her left temple, and closed her eyes. "Hopefully we will not have war declared by the Citadel races for this." She leaned back in her seat.

"Thank you Grand Admiral." The Diplomat smiled- a slightly disconcerting motion for everyone at the table, as it seemed too... Mechanical. Too smooth. "How about we show you a little something extra today- one of our scouts is about to preform a multi-mega-light velocity test, and we have a great spot for it."

Han'Gerrel stood up, and leaned forward. "A what?"

"A multi-Mega-light velocity test." A hologram popped into existence over the table, displaying a unique ship. It was fairly simple in appearance, a cylinder with rounded ends, and three nacelles that were within torus/ring that was attacked to the main body by three spars. "This is our fastest design so far- eight million times lightspeed, with multiple types of drives, stealth abilities, and probes, it would be capable of getting from here to the andromeda galaxy in 116 days." She sounded smug.

Every admiral at the table had a different reaction to this. Grand Admiral Vishi's eyes widened. Admiral Hackett's jaw dropped open, as did most of the other admirals.

Admiral Han'Gerrel fell off his chair.

Admiral Raan, however, leaned forward. "Can you show us real-time footage of the craft?"

"Yes." The hologram changed from an engineering blueprint to a multi-angle projection, as though the images of several different telescopes were watching the ship. The space around the nacelles within the ring seemed distorted, but otherwise there was nothing unique. "The ship is currently at 90% lightspeed in conventional space- and she's turning around now." The ship flipped end over end, and the distortion around the engines faded. Then, the ship re-oriented towards a target that the telescopes were not pointing at, and the ring seemed to glow suddenly, the slight glow surrounded the ship, and the entire ship seemed to blur. "That would be the sub-light frameshift engine being fired."

The telescopes seemed to be easily keeping track, until a blue glow seemed to blossom around the ship, and the telescopes almost lost track of it- the image appeared disjointed for a few seconds. "That was the mass-effect drive used in conjunction with the sublight frameshift field. Calculated speed- 120,000 times light."

The Diplomat cocked her head to the side, and blinked. "Time dilation detected- light limit within maximum mass effect field density is 282,253 times lightspeed."

The admirals looked on, still slightly in shock, as the ship stopped glowing blue and shimmering.

"Right..." Vishi swallowed, and almost slipped out of her chair. "Can we get the specs for some of those engines?" Her voice shook with envy as she reseated herself.

"Allying with the Loa Collective would allow you assess to these technologies. However, since I know you want an edge..." The Diplomat pulled a small memory chip out of a hidden slot on the table. "I have permission to give you access to the nacelle-frameshift thruster technology." She slid the chip over to Vishi, who grabbed it with a blurred hand. "If we are accepted as allies, we will establish dedicated shipyards, who will multiply your ship-construction times by a factor of ten- at the least." Her face was perfectly neutral as she said this, and the hologram of the ship dissipated as a silver bubble began to enclose it.

"Are you bribing us?" Gerrel spat. "Typical of an AI-"

The Diplomats head whipped to stare at Admiral Han'Gerrel. "Do you really want to finish that phrase, Quarian? The Collective numbers serval hundred THOUSAND shells capable of FTL frame shifting, and we can mobilize in seconds." She gestured at the sky above the table as a massive shadow drifted over the dwarf star. "That is a stellar lifter. We will have it built within a month. When it is complete we can begin pulling material off of star directly. It will be able to shatter planets, and snuff stars." Her voice, though artificial, developed a cold edge. "We don't need you to survive. This offer of peace? It is a courtesy, requested by our creator- although it is beyond us why he didn't take over your civilization."

Hackett stood up sharply. "See here- you cannot threaten us."

The Diplomat turned to face him, neck twisting at a speed that would shatter an organic spine. "Of course I can. I was being nice, and that one-" she pointed at Gerrel, who stood up. "- insinuated that we were trying to bribe you. The Collective has no intention of stooping to such behavior. We merely intend to he good allies- and we are not beings that should be seen as second-class to any organic." Her eyes glowed brighter and brighter as she spoke, until she stopped speaking, then the glow receded again. She took a breath- not that she needed one, but it made her seem more... Relatable. When she spoke again, her voice was calm, and controlled. "If that is everything, we will prep for FTL transit to return you back to your system."

Vishi seemed slightly shaken, but she nodded. The admirals stood, and began walking over to the ship.

The Diplomat ran over to Vishi, and tapped her on the shoulder. "Thanks for meeting with us. Tell John to contact us when we are are permitted to meet with the council." She held out a hand to Grand Admiral Vishi.

The grand admiral stared at her for a second, then shook the constructs hand. She smiled. "It was pleasure. And, between you and me," she looked back at the small cutter that the rest of the admirals were climbing into, then turned back to the Diplomat. "I enjoyed seeing Gerrel scared. He has been an ass since our militaries fused."

* * *

The silver sphere covered the Diplomat, and she jumped back to the Arcturus system, carrying the only people who knew about the Loa.

Scout42, however, was already underway- traveling eight million times lightspeed, on route to the Perseus veil. Her mission- to contact the Geth and negotiate peaceful relations.

* * *

Like always, please review and leave what is on your mind- I wanted to update earlier, but I do have work, and it takes up ALOT of time.

Oh, and I want to offer something- if you leave a review, in want to know- is there a character that you want to ask a question to? If so, what is that question?  
I will answer all questions asked.


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